Crochet guide
How to crochet sleeves
A crochet sleeve is made in one of three ways. It is worked flat and seamed into a tube. Or it is worked in rounds, straight out from the armhole. Or it grows out of the yoke of a top-down sweater. Whichever way, a tapered sleeve gets narrower toward the wrist by adding or taking away stitches at a steady rate, and a short sum gives that rate.
On this page 9 parts
The ways a sleeve is built
| Way | Worked | Shaped with | Seam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat, from the cuff up | In rows | Increases at both edges | One, along the underarm |
| Flat, from the top down | In rows | Decreases at both edges | One, along the underarm |
| Out from the armhole | In rounds | Decreases toward the cuff, if it tapers | None |
| In one with a top-down body | In rounds | Decreases toward the cuff, if it tapers | None |
Worked flat, then seamed
A flat sleeve is a piece worked back and forth in rows. In the simplest sweaters it is a plain rectangle. More often it is tapered: wide at the upper arm and narrow at the wrist.
You can start at either end. From the cuff up, you add a stitch at each edge every few rows until the sleeve is as wide as the upper arm needs. From the top down, you take a stitch away at each edge every few rows until you reach the cuff. Increases and Decreases show both moves.
When the piece is done, its top edge is seamed to the body, with the middle of that edge matched to the shoulder seam. Then the sleeve is folded along its length and seamed from the cuff to the underarm. How to join crochet pieces compares the seams.
Worked out from the armhole
A sleeve can also be worked in rounds, straight from the armhole of the finished body. The first round is worked into the edge all the way around the armhole, and the sleeve carries on in rounds toward the wrist, with decreases if it tapers. Picking up stitches explains how to work evenly along row ends.
There is no underarm seam, and nothing to sew on.
In one with a top-down body
On a top-down sweater the sleeves are part of the yoke. When the yoke reaches the underarms, a few chains are made under each arm and the sleeve stitches are skipped while the body is worked. Each sleeve is then worked in rounds from those skipped stitches and the underarm chains, down to the cuff. How a crochet sweater is put together covers the yoke.
The sleeve cap
On a drop shoulder sweater the top of the sleeve is a straight edge. Where the armhole is shaped, the top of the sleeve is curved to match it. That curve is the sleeve cap, and a sleeve made this way is a set-in sleeve.
Working out the shaping
A tapered sleeve changes width at a steady rate. Three measures give the rate: the width of the sleeve around the upper arm, its width around the wrist, and its length from underarm to cuff. Your gauge turns each into stitches or rows: The math of crochet shows the sum.
- Take the wrist stitches from the upper arm stitches. That is how many stitches the sleeve must gain or lose.
- Divide by 2, because each shaping row changes one stitch at each edge. That is the number of shaping rows.
- Divide the rows in the sleeve by the number of shaping rows. That is how often a shaping row comes.
An example. A gauge of 16 stitches and 12 rows to 4 in (10 cm) is 4 stitches and 3 rows to the inch. A sleeve 13 in (33 cm) around the upper arm needs 13 × 4 = 52 stitches. At 8 in (20 cm) around the wrist it needs 8 × 4 = 32. At 18 in (46 cm) long it has 18 × 3 = 54 rows. The difference is 52 − 32 = 20 stitches, which is 20 ÷ 2 = 10 shaping rows. And 54 ÷ 10 = 5.4, so every fifth row is a shaping row. Ten of those use 50 rows, and the last 4 rows are worked plain.
The numbers rarely divide evenly. Round to whole stitches and whole rows, and put the leftover plain rows at one end or split them between both.
Sleeve shapes by name
| Shape | What makes it |
|---|---|
| Straight | The same width all the way down: no shaping |
| Tapered | Wider at the upper arm than at the wrist |
| Bell | Fitted at the top and flared toward the wrist, so it is wider at the wrist than above it |
| Bishop | Wide and full toward the wrist, where it is drawn into a close cuff |
| Puff | Full in the middle, and drawn in at the top and at the bottom |
| Cap | The shortest sleeve: it covers the shoulder and stops there |
| Drop shoulder | A straight-topped sleeve on a body with no armhole shaping, so the seam sits down the arm |
| Dolman | Not a separate piece: the sleeve and the body are made in one |
Cuffs
A cuff is usually a band of ribbing. It can be made first, with the sleeve worked up from it, or added last, onto the end of the finished sleeve.
Where to go next
- How a crochet sweater is put together, for the body the sleeve joins.
- Necklines and collars, for the other opening.
- The math of crochet, for stitches and rows from a gauge.
- Crochet gauge, for the swatch the sum starts from.