Sleeves

The first sleeve is finished and it took exactly 2 balls of yarn.  It's a nice, arm shaped sleeve.  The cuff is super fat, which is charming in its own way. How fat? Well, the gauge for this bugger is 19 stitches/4 inches, and the cable pattern is 24 stitches wide and yet only about 2.5 inches.  That means about 2 inches are sucked into the "depth" of the cuff, if you will.  It's probably about a centimeter thick, but I didn't bring my calipers, so it's just an educated guess.  I slipped the 1st stitch of every row, and have a nice, even line on both sides of the cuff.

The main modification I made to the sleeve involves the cast on and bind off.  The pattern calls for a regular cast on edge which is sewn on top of the bind off to create a visible seam in an otherwise seamless piece.  This does not fly in my land of seamless knitting, and so I did a provisional cast on and a three needle bind off.  The cables don't match but the overall effect is, in my humble opinion, much cleaner, especially since I already explained that the cuffs are about a centimeter thick (that's a fat seam).

I'm currently waffling on where to put the extra 2 inches in the bodice.  Part of me thinks that I should put it in right away, and then work the short rows.  The other part of me says that is a stupid idea, and I should do the short rows, calculate out the distance remaining, start the button band early, and then work the 2 inches prior to the armpits.

The decision really rides on how much I want the arc below the bustline, and I don't have a clearly formulated opinion on that subject yet.  I am a wee bit nervous because everyone seems to think this pattern is riddled with errors and that vogue has been negligent on the errata front, but so far everything seems to be working out fine.  I suppose we'll see later.  I'll post sleeve pictures next time around.