bernat softee baby knit hooded jacket

by Nora
(Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)

I am knitting from a pattern and my finished back of sweater measures 12 inches. How long should the arms be?

Their suggestions is 5 1/4 inches but mine is much longer and the pattern is still not finished according to the number of stitches I should have left.

I must have knitted very loosely as the back and side seem much bigger than they should for a 6 month old baby. How long should the sleeves be to look proportioned to the back?

I might have the save this jacket for an 18 month old or older, but I want to finish it.

YOUR ANSWER

Did you do a tension square before you started?

It could be that your knitting tension is different to the tension used by the pattern, it may be that you should have used smaller needles to knit the sweater to get the width and length of the pieces the same as that in the pattern.

I checked one of my pattern books and for a six month size sweater the garment length is 11.5 inches (so close) and the sleeve length is 7 inches. The measurement is from the cuff to the shoulder.

Is the 5 1/4 inch measurement in your pattern to the armhole perhaps? If not there is definitely something wrong somewhere.

It is also possible that there is a mistake or misprint in the pattern. It happens more often than you might think.

What I suggest is that you find a pattern for the same sized sweater using a similar yarn and compare the two patterns. If the instructions are significantly different between the two patterns, you might be able to knit the sleeves from the second pattern using the knitting stitch pattern of the original pattern.

Sounds far more complicated than it is. Kind of an 'if all else fails' option, but it might serious be your best option.

Hope this helps...