New Year's Knitting.

Hi all, I've been knitting away on my first sleeve all day and I thought I'd share a few tweaks that I've already made (I know, I'm never happy).

I cast on for the 36" size sleeve and knit about six inches before everyone in my home came by and said - that's huge, start over. So, I did. I decided to shoot for the same stitch count at the top, so I've had to modify the taper some. I casted on 50 stitches, knit 4 inches and have been increasing per the instructions every inch following to end up at 80 at the top. It it starts to look too much like a funnel, I'll stop increasing, but so far with this weight yarn, the increases are pretty subtle.

And, I visited Depth of Field Yarn in Minneapolis - a fabulous old school knitting shop owned by one of my Mom's high school pals. The owner is a knitting genius and this is the conversation we had:
Me: Hey, what do you know about steeking?
KG: Steeking? I love steeking. I steek all the time. I know everything about steeking. I taught a class on steeking.
Me: Great. This is what I'm knitting, and she's got no extra stitches built in for the steek, what do you think?
KG: Change it. Cast on 5 extra stitches, that's all you need. Knit the steek stitches through the back loop so they're twisted, they'll hold better that way. Crochet up the sides of the center stitch and cut the ladder.
(At this point, she grabbed a sample sweater she just happened to have sitting next to her to show me what she meant - she has samples of everything technical - she's amazing - and sure enough, it looked great.)

So, that's my plan - 5 extra twisted steek stitches.