Letters
Mood Cardigan: The Sleevening
Dear Ann,
A thing about myself I keep trying to change is that when something gets tricky—or more accurately, I think it’s getting tricky—I ditch it for an easier road.
That happened to me almost instantly as soon as I was done with knitting the two rectangles that magically turn into Jeanette Sloan’s Mood Cardigan. Tubular Bind-Off? Scary words right there. Better put it down for a bit to galvanize the spine.
Guess what. The Tubular Bind-off is not scary.
Here’s how you make the cuffs on the Mood Cardigan, in four easy steps that almost any reasonably seasoned knitter can do without any fuss whatsoever.
Step 1: Knit the Cuff Part
All this part consists of is : 14 rows of 1 x 1 ribbing. Child’s play.
I done it. Where’s my cookie? The yarn is rustic fingering, held single.
Step 2: Two Slippy-Stitchy Rows
Row 1: Knit the knits and slip the purls.
Row 2: Slip the knits and purl the purls.
This part is so easy I didn’t even take a picture. I just did it.
Step 3: The Great Separation
This step requires no special skills, just an extra circular needle and a dab of patience.
You slip the knits onto the front needle. You slip the purls onto the back needle.
When you’re done, it looks like this:
Does this remind you of anything? Bueller? If it reminds you of the set-up for grafting, aka Kitchener Stitch, aka How We Close the Toe of a Cuff-Down Sock, there’s a good reason for that. It’s because the next step is:
Step 4: Regular Old Grafting
For this step, if you are not Kitchener-confident, I commend unto you the miraculous video by Lorilee Beltman: Memorize the Kitchener Stitch. It’s life-changing.
Lorilee’s video is so good that I was able to graft this cuff without a repeat watching of the video.
She taught me so well that I just know how to graft now. 84 stitches grafted, no problem. Rejoice!
Onward!
One thing I’ve been kind of anxious about, but not anxious enough to read ahead in the pattern, is wondering how I’m supposed to know where to attach the body rectangle to the sleeve rectangle so that the thing ends up a cardigan with symmetrical fronts.
I needn’t have worried about this. Jeanette Sloan has us covered, people! The pattern tells exactly where to place markers before sewing the seams. Line up your markers, seam the seams, and Bob’s your uncle.
I will show you in my next Mood Cardigan post.
Knitting Help from Jeanette Sloan
For those just starting their Mood Cardigans (I’m looking at you, Ann), Jeanette Sloan has help for your provisional cast-on of the sleeve. Over in the MDK Lounge, some Moodsters have hesitated at the pattern’s instruction to cast on provisionally in waste yarn, and then immediately begin the lace stitch pattern. Doing this means that you will be working decreases into the provisional cast on. There is nothing wrong with this, but it might feel wrong. It did feel a little weird to me, so I purled the first row before starting the lace pattern.
Jeanette offers an excellent picture tutorial on how to deal with the creation and ultimate unzipping of the crochet provisional cast-on, right here on her website.
Looking forward to a great rush of Mood Cardigans now that we’ve gotten to the bottom of this Tubular Bind-Off business.
Love,
Kay
Well, Robert WAS my uncle so I suspect I can do that….
Tubular bind off, a great finale!
It makes such a clean edge, and kind of magical the way the stitches go around the edge.
Excellent instructions!
I learnt tubular bind off recently and have done it twice….I thought by the second time I would be able to remember the sequence of moves for the grafting but found that I had to refer to the instructions continuously. And as I watch TV whilst knitting I kept forgetting where I was up to and then found it very difficult to work it out. The simple tip in the video for always knowing where you’re up to is inspired! It’s so simple and kind of obvious once you know, but it will be a game changer. Thank you.
Thank you SO much for sharing this!!! Amazing! I might actually be able to remember it.
Tubular cast on has been a question mark for me and nowTubular cast off….
Funny, funny title (we know what show you want to win the Emmys!)
This video was a game changer for my tubular bind off. No set up rows! No putting on two needles! Simple to memorize! I now often do a provisional cast on for bottom up things so I can add the ribbing and use this bind off (since tubular cast on still eludes me…).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0jPMLIE7ac8&t=305s
Yeah, I made my own set of notes on grafting/sewn cast off with the knits and the purls written out so I wouldn’t bother with the setup and separation either.
I had read of this tubular cast-off long ago, gave doubt, and did not even think of trying it. But, dang, I wished I had because when I tried it with my Mood sweater sleeve ribbing, it was like magic.
This song was on the radio, “Slip sliding away, slip sliding away You know the nearer your destination The more you’re slip sliding away” by Paul Simon – the stitches did not slide away, they just slid into place like magic and it was done before I knew it.
Try it, you’ll like it.
Totally tubular! Fer shure!
That color combination is delightful. I’m making this cardigan and was going to be Stash busting but It’s hard not to buy all the yarn.
I’ve already tried the tubular cast on for a couple of hats and will definitely do this at the next opportunity.
Love your reassuring writing voice, Kay. Feels like your talking directly to me. I look forward to your newsletters in my inbox.
OMG, this was amazing! Just yesterday, I had to do a Kitchener, and of course, had to look it up. I was clobbering myself about never having been able to memorize it, and then THIS falls in my lap this morning. Great tips so that I never have to look it up again! Thanks!
What is the color of the Rustic Fingering used for this sweater?
Cooper Circle. We’ve got more of this shade on order.
Thank you for reminding me about logging in to save a post – I’ve been missing that little flag thingy to save your awesome ideas and tips!
Thanks for this! I’m hoping to finish the sleeve this weekend and was wondering about undoing the provisional cast-on.
Not ready to do the cardigan but I love the video for grafting. I may never need to look it up again.
Er ma gad! That video does perfectly explain exactly how to do Kitchener, and I think I will never forget it again either. Wow. Thank you, Kay!!!
If you are knitting the sleeve from the top down, why not start by picking up stitches from the body and so avoid the seam completely?
There are no sleeve seams in this garment, because the two rectangles are joined to construct the cardigan itself. The sleeves are no more than cuffs, which are indeed knit in the round. If you look at the garment laid out flat (you can find an image here: https://forums.moderndailyknitting.com/t/mood-cardigan-knitters-unite/5248/), you’ll see how it’s constructed.
Waaaaaay beyond brilliant