for all my students … this is the way I pickup stitches for the sleeve in a topdown sweater to avoid holes.

I’m pretty sure I read about this technique for picking up and decreasing away those two extra stitches from some wise knitter … but I searched and couldn’t find a reference. My sincere apologies for claiming this technique as my own, but I wanted to have it documented!

Notes:

1. the photos deal with the two extra stitches I pick up - one at the beginning and one at the end of the held stitches.
2. I always start picking up the stitches in the middle of the underarm.
3. I pickup one stitch in each of the stitches I cast on under the arm for the body (remember those cast on stitches are now upside down - “upside down Vs wearing berets”).
4. Once I have the first “extra” stitch on the needle (photo#4), I put the held stitches onto the needle (I always count and double-count the stitches to be sure I have them all before I take out the waste yarn that was holding those stitches) and then
5. work them according to the pattern.
6. I pickup the second “extra” stitch and the second half of the underarm stitches after I’ve worked the stitches that were on hold.
7. on the first round of knitting, I decrease away the two extra stitches - so I’m left with the number of stitches equal to 1) the number of sleeve stitches I “held” plus 2) the number of stitches I cast on under the arm.

If the pattern tells me to do anything different, I modify the pattern!