Problem solving

    The one thing I was most proud of in the recently frogged sweater, was the tightness of the stitches where I cast on new ones for the underarm, after removing the sleeve stitches. I will now attempt to explain it in words.


    You know how, when casting on stitches say for under the arm, the only way to do it is with those half hitch (I think it's called) stitches on the right needle? And how when you come around to them again, no matter how tightly you pulled when putting them on, there is always a really long bit of yarn between the new stitches and the already knit stitches?


    Well, I was thinking about that when making Sara's sweater, and decided to try something to fix it. I needed to cast on 6 new stitches. So I only cast on 4. When I came around again to those 4 stitches, I knit them, and as per usual, there was the long bit of yarn left.  My thought was to take that long bit and make the other two required stitches, but on the left needle, one at a time, then knit them.  So I made a half hitch on the left needle using the long bit, then knit it, and then did it again to make the two stitches I needed.


    I was right! It worked! In theory, you could cast on slightly more than 2/3 of the stitches you really need, and use the long bit to do the rest. I will do it again on the new version of the sweater, where I require 10 stitches to be cast on. I'll try it with 7, and we'll see what happens. 


   When I made my sweater, I hated the long bit, it made big holes at the underarm that I had to sew closed. This new way, I was so excited because it looked seamless! No holes!


    My question to all you knitters out there is this: Have you ever tried this? And if you've solved this problem differently, how did you do it? I'd really like to know!