Twitter Sweater: Sleeve notions

Apologies for the delay on posting, but we brought home a couple of kittens Sunday, who are adorable and wonderful, but carrying their crates home and then getting Penelope out of her crib wrenched my back. And then my newest nephew was born on Monday night, so I've been working on something for him, while trying to take it a little easy on the ol' vertebrae.

So, sleeves. This sweater is all about the sleeves, isn't it? The most obvious choice is to work them in the round, increasing, perhaps pi-wise from the cuff, until the circumference is big enough, then continue to work up, decreasing at an appropriate rate towards the armscye. Another in-the-round option is to pick up around the armscye and work downwards towards the cuff. Of course, either of these could be worked flat instead and then seamed, though working in the round tends to go more quickly, just because you keep going 'round and 'round rather than back-and-forth.

Now for the crazy option: short rows! Wait, it's not *that* crazy. This would be another way to incorporate the necessary volume in the sleeves. This would require the sleeves to be worked flat, but I'd be working back and forth from armscye to cuff, incorporating longer and shorter short rows to create the shape. This would be a cool option because it's more *interesting* technically, and it would turn the direction of the fabric sideways, which is also interesting.

However, would that interesting element distract from the overall effect? When you look at Mme. Grès's gown, you don't look at the fabric, you look at the shape, the dramatic volume. But does that mean that a knitter (a.k.a, fabric creator) should ignore the fabric? I really like the way Geisha looks in stockinette, so that is the fabric I will create. Perhaps it's time to swatch some short rows to see how that works.

No pictures of the sweater today, but I bet you'd like to meet the kitteh-ns in case you haven't seen them on Facebook or Twitter (and if you're on either of those, friend/follow me!):

George and Henry