I chose to make this sweater short-sleeved for versatility (the baby is due in March), but I would have had more than enough yarn left to knit long sleeves, and then another sweater. This pattern doesn’t take much yarn, and the indigodragonfly skeins are generous, so it’s a good combination.

Also, this yarn is soft. Like, crazy soft. Like, I want to knit all my baby knits forever out of it. It was gorgeous to knit with, blocked beautifully, and in general was just what I wanted it to be.

For the short sleeves: I picked up all the held stitches and then picked up up 5 stitches in the armpit (one extra). The row (for me) starts with the first held stitch after the picked up ones. Then I proceeded thusly: Knit one row plain. Next row: knit to five stitches from the end (these are your picked up armpit stitches), k2tog, k1, k2tog. Knit one row plain. Purl one row; knit one row; purl row; knit row; purl row; bind off (This makes three garter ridges). Repeat for second sleeve.

I also worked three garter ridges at the bottom of the sweater to match.

The next time I knit this, I will add two stitches to each of the button bands (six instead of four) and use my normal buttonhole. The yarn-over buttonhole is fine, but with shaped buttons it is a little more annoying.

More details here.