When it comes to sleeves and socks, I almost never do things one at a time. For the R&R Hoodie that is my SSKAL16 project, I made an exception. 
Since this yarn is hand dyed and I’m working on a large garment, to avoid pooling it’s best to alternate skeins of yarn every couple of rows (also suggested on the ball band). This Purelife Worsted in Lotus is delightful and I’m glad I’m striping to keep the color effect more consistent. There are some small instances of pooling, but nothing garish or distracting so far. Managing multiple balls of yarn means doing two sleeves at once might be a tangled headache with four strands all being associated with one magic loop needle. I decided to keep it simple and do the sleeves one at a time, making sure to mark all of the increases so that I could diligently match each sleeve (one of the reasons I’m so keen on two at a time items).
There’s definitely something to this one at a time thing. The first sleeve flew by. I started it at a work meeting on Thursday afternoon and it was done by Friday early evening. Granted, Thursday night included both time at knit night and at a book club, so I got in about 3 hours of knitting that evening, but I was amazed that I was casting on the second sleeve in about 30 hours.
When I know I have many increases to keep track of, I like to put a marker for every increase at the bottom of the item and mark them as I go up. These are Clover locking markers (my favorite). I am making the 37.5″ size, but I altered the sleeve to start with the same number of stitches as the 32.75″ size. I wanted a narrower wrist so I started smaller and added additional increases and spaced them out a bit differently than the pattern suggested. I added an extra inch as well, to pull the sleeves up over the heel of my hands like I like to do in cold weather.
I hope this second sleeve goes as quickly. I really want to make this pattern for Zooey and Charlotte as soon as I cast this one off, since the pattern comes in baby to adult sizes and I love matchy matchy knits. I also have Matt’s long languishing Rift sitting in my UFO basket, giving me the stink eye every time I put a new project in there. I suppose that should take priority next, but maybe I can cast on a quick baby hoodie as a traveling project…
When I had a project like that I put the three balls of yarn for each sleeve inside the sleeve itself, fastening the cuff shut with a stitch holder. I wasn’t so good at remembering when I had done the decreases, however, until I began doing a simple decorative pattern down each sleeve – then I could remember to decrease at the end of each repeat. Also, I found that I wasn’t able to switch threads without a noticeable gap until I began doing it in a purl column.
The biggest thing I learned, though, was to buy enough yarn for the project at one time. Because if you wait three years, the manufacturer will completely have changed the colorway… >:-{
I always knit my sleeves one at a time, mostly because I never got the hang of two at a time and also because if I keep my head down I can totally whip through the majority of a sleeve in one night and that always feels so good.
What wonderful progress. I love this hoodie WIP, Cassy. I forget, did you dye the yarn or a friend did? It will be so cute for you and your daughters to match.
What is this gorgeous yarn?? What a stunning color!
I will have to use your idea for the increases, I am the queen of making adjustments of increases/decreases and NOT writing them down. This would make it so much easier to knit the second sleeve!