Joining for the body.

[jackandahat]

This is going to be one of those questions where I try, badly, to explain the problem. It's like knitting charades!

I'm knitting a top-down raglan pullover. I've made little ones before, but this is my first me-sized.

When I get to join the arms... well. Imagine that when you knit up to the arm hole you have side A (the stuff on the right needle, "before" the arm hole) and side B (the stuff on the left, "after"). Even if I just knit straight across, I end up with a gaping gap between the bit I've knitted and where I would knit the stitches for the arm. And that's even without casting on more stitches, which makes the gap even clearer. (Not the gap caused by the cast-on stitches, I know you pick them up - I mean just... a random gap.)

And I know it says to pick up some stitches but the "gap" is pretty unpickupable, part of it is where the increased stitches were and if I try to pick up I get one loop pulled away from the rest and it looks ugly.

Does this make sense to anyone? Is it something I've done wrong? Help?

*Throws self on your mercy* I've made teddy bear sweaters and met this problem before, but I solved it by just sewing it up. But that's not as neat as it could be, and there must be a better way, so.

ETA:


The orange is the thread my arms are on, so you can see the bottom of the arms. The needle is just the first row knitted across. You can see the gap between them.

Comments

[james]

Try picking up a stitch one row below the edge, from the inside (so you're pulling the loop up from the inside of the underarm. You'll want to check that you're not making the outside edge look weird, but sometimes you luck out and can find a loop that works. Basically, try snagging different loops along the edge to see which ones work. It doesn't *have* to be the very edge because, yeah, those loops can pull a lot and have big gaps.

Also, sewing up gaps afterward with the long tail is a time-honoured technique. ;-) So don't worry if that's what you do.

(And a pullover is the same thing as a jumper is the same thing as a sweater - the important bit is 'top-down raglan' which describe the type of construction.)

[jackandahat]

Ah, so I haven't totally screwed something up, it's actually kind of normal? That's reassuring - I wasn't sure if it was something plenty of people did and just didn't mention, or if I'd done something ridiculous.

*Makes note* Thank you.

[aunty_marion]

Heh. You should see me swearing and sweating as I carefully darn over the holes at the corners of the heels of my socks...

[jackandahat]

That's the weird thing - I haven't had to do that in ages. It just... stopped. I don't know what I suddenly started doing right! But it's nice to know it is acceptable/normal and not me doing something randomly weird.

[seryn]

The raglan instructions I first read suggested leaving a longer tail on the yoke end of the arms because there is always an issue with the join at the underarm. The difference is probably exacerbated by smaller sweaters/jumpers having a lot fewer underarm stitches.

[jackandahat]

Well, it's good to know it's not just me! (Though I'm not sure I'd call me small... hmm.)