The seamless jumper conundrum, part 2

Well, nobody commented, but never mind. 

It turns out that the jumper body is knitting first, from waste yarn, knitting sideways. When you get to the armhole, you park the main yarn to one side and knit the armhole in waste yarn,  (the rest of the body is set to hold here). Knit a row of ravel cord and then knit some more waste yarn. Re-engage the main yarn and knit the front, using decreases and increases where necessary to create a front neckline. Scrap off on waste yarn.

To knit the sleeve, it's a simple matter to pull out the single row of ravel cord and hang both halves of the armhole onto the middle of the machine. The sleeve is then knitted downwards, decreasing as required, and cast off. The other arm can be knit by picking up the same number of stitches from the relevant bits of cast on and cast off waste yarn from the body, and duplicating the first sleeve. Finally, what is left of the main yarn waste yarn parts can be mounted onto the machine, right sides together, and cast off. You have to mattress stitch the two sleeve seams (and as much of the shoulder seam as you want to - make sure it'll go over your heard) and weave in all the ends. So there you are - an apparently one-piece sweater, which is the main body knitted sideways first with sleeves knitted onto it downwards.  

I did knit a swatch of terracotta boucle yarn, intending to use it to calculate my own attempt at this, but alas it ended up getting tumble dried by mistake. I will have to knit another one and be more careful. My Passap has had the console upgraded with a new battery (and one of the springs failed as I got it off the stand, so that was repaired also). I'm still waking up at 4am every morning so not much else is happening knitting-wise, because keeping my eyes open after 6pm can be quite the challenge. However, I did have a spurt on the handknit Pauline cardigan so I've half a sleeve done. 

It's all I can do to stay upright and civil at the moment because I am bone tired - even fun things I've organised at the weekend seem a trial though I keep showing up anyway (I usually enjoy them, it just feels like such an effort to leave the house). Oh well. The light is coming back, I've seen snowdrops and daffodils and early crocuses this week. Not long now! 

Current mood: exhausted