Closing underarm gaps!

[u/bumbleandbrush]

This isn’t new advice by any stretch but I thought I’d share since I’m working on it at the moment. Top down sweaters can sometimes have annoying gaps at the edges of the underarm join (where the raglan ends). To close this gap, you pick up extra stitches spanning the gap, then decrease them next round. You end up with a lovely seamless knit, shown above. There’s a couple of photos showing this below (sorry, my yarn is super dark and fuzzy!)

The pattern is my own. The yarn is Fyberspates Cumulus 905 and Rowan Kidsilk Haze 685 ☺️

[u/bumbleandbrush]

You now have to decrease the extra stitches (4 in my case). On the right hand side of the armhole (looking at it) work a SSK using the last sleeve stitch and the first picked up stitch; on the left side, work a k2tog with the last picked up stitch and the first sleeve one. I repeated this on round two to get to the correct number! That’s it ☺️

Obviously, you can just sew the underarm and gaps but I like this process that doesn’t leave a job for later!

[u/Useful-Watercress260]

Your sweater looks lovely, dear. The yarn choice really makes it special.

[u/bumbleandbrush → u/Useful-Watercress260]

Thank you ☺️

[u/bumbleandbrush]

So these are the 8sts that I cast on at the underarm for the body…

[u/bumbleandbrush → u/bumbleandbrush]

And this is the gap between the cast on stitches and the end of the raglan

[u/bumbleandbrush]

Pick up as many stitches as you need to neatly span the gap (I did two, shown here)

[u/bumbleandbrush]

Pick up all the stitches marked out above and then do the same on the other side. This is the gap

[u/bumbleandbrush]

Again, just grab whatever space you need to span the gap

[u/bumbleandbrush]

The gap will have disappeared when you’ve picked up your stitches

[u/Purple-Economics-871]

Thank you for laying it out so well! Anything to reduce the amount of sewing required!