Saddle sweater progress

I hate knitting sleeves last for some reason, so I got smart and started knitting sleeves halfway through the project instead. Plus I finally applied a technique that makes all the difference. I have a hard time keeping track of what row I'm on in a large project like this. Every tenth row is a decrease row. Instead of losing my place and confusing myself, now I run a piece of waste yarn and flip it back and forth between stitches every five rows. If the yarn end comes out towards me I know it is a decrease round. And if I need to do eight decrease rounds I can just count how many flips of yarn I've made. 

So easy yet so brilliant. I've never been able to keep track of a sleeve so well as when I've been doing this.

Working the short rows to make the sleeve caps required two sets of circular needles. One to knit back and forth on and one to hold the stitches waiting to be wrapped. It is amazing how much easier things are when you apply the right tools and techniques.

This must be my learning sweater because I finally figured out how to write up the pattern steps on note cards so it is easier to keep track of where I am and what I am doing. Unless of course you misread 17 cm as 17 inches. Man that was one deep armhole I tell you! Almost three times as deep as needed.

I even use waste yarn to mark the center line of the saddle shoulder. Waste yarn being the left over bits after I make socks. Naw I don't have any of that stuff laying around my house at all. Left over sock yarn? Bags of it? Nope not me, that is just my helper stash there. Yet another reason to knit D some bright obnoxious socks, my marking yarn will contrast with my sedate sweaters more.

And here I thought loud socks were just to annoy the guys at the gym.