By Karen Wehrle

The most challenging sweater seam of all is when you sew a set-in sleeve into an armhole. Two things can trip you up, even when you use the mattress stitch that can join sides, tops, and mismatched pieces of knitting. Use these tips for success.

This Curve Goes Into That Curve…How?

One reason sewing a curved sleeve cap into a sweater armhole offers trouble is because so often it seems like there’s too much sleeve or too big an armhole. If you pin or clip your sleeve into the armhole, you can ease any excess evenly. Plastic stitch markers shaped like a safety pin work great. There are special clips for this, also. Clothes pins, safety pins, or straight pins work.

Divide and Conquer

If you fold your sleeve down the center, you’ll find the center point at the top. Pin this spot to the shoulder seam of your sweater. Pin the front corner of your sleeve cap to the underarm corner of your front piece. Pin the back corner of your sleeve cap to the underarm corner of your back piece.

Now two more pins: one center front, one center back. They’ll connect a midpoint of the sleeve and a midpoint of the armhole together at both front and back. How’s it going? Need more pins? Another pin midway between your existing pins will help close each gap. By now your sleeve and armhole opening may seem well matched for a happy marriage.

Ready, Set, Sew

With a good length of yarn on your darning needle, push your needle up through the end of the shoulder seam and pull half your yarn through. Leave the other half dangle until you sew down the other side later.

Up the Down Staircase

The second challenge about sewing in sleeves is how the direction of your knitting changes as you go. At the sleeve top, you join vertical columns of sleeve stitches to side edges of sweater stitches. Slide your needle under both legs of a sleeve stitch, then slide it under a bar between sweater stitches.

After a few inches, your sleeve cap curves so you’ll join sides of stitches like it’s a side seam. You can slide under bars here. When you reach bound off stitches at the underarm, you’ll join vertical columns like it’s a shoulder seam. You can slide under both legs of stitches here.

Besides the mattress stitch, other knitting finishing techniques include the whip stitch, running stitch, back stitch, a crochet join and more for seaming. Some give your knitting a different look, or serve a different purpose, like making a handle, or give your knitting a decorative touch.

Remember, you knit for fun, relaxation and productive results. Get more tips on success with sweater seams

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By Joseph Paul Caparas

You can earn by selling your handmade products online. Since scarves and mufflers are essential to keep warm during colder days, you will need to learn a few tips how your customers will look and buy your products.

1. Some items are completely seasonal. If you plan on selling handmade mufflers and scarves, make your designs unique to help it stand out from the rest. Since a lot of people go online these days, you are not the only one who is selling handmade mufflers. So you need to make your range of your designs really wide if you want to earn more profit.

2. When selling handmade scarves, you will need to show specify the thickness of the material, where it is made and what is it made from. This provides your customers an idea of how thick the fabric is. Some use handmade scarves as fashion accessories rather than as an essential clothing for cold weather.

3. When selling online specify the number of days for shipping. You need to mention how long it takes for your scarves to arrive to your customers. Some handmade scarves cost more because of quality, design and material and your customers will pay a huge amount for it. As a seller, you need them to know how long they will get the product to avoid any confusion or trouble later on.

4. Specify that your creation is handmade. Since you are a seller, you will need to inform your customers that your creation is handmade. This makes them appreciate the value of your work. If your work is finely made and detailed, it will make your items more appreciated and stand out from the rest.

5. If you are selling handmade mufflers and scarves, to help increase your profit, make handmade mufflers that can be used by different age groups. You can come up with a size chart to make it easier for your customers to determine their sizes.

6. To make everything clear, if you wonder the difference between a scarf and a muffler, the answer is just plain simple: gender. Mufflers are for men and scarves are for women. Although anyone can wear a muffler or a scarf-it depends on the design sometimes and how the item is worn to pull it off.

7. Now that you are going to sell your handmade scarves and handmade mufflers, to add more appeal to your page, ask someone to model them for you. Use a good digital camera to take photo of the items and then upload them online. Then come up with a good write up about yourself and your designs to make your line of handmade products even more personal.

MadeItMyself is a rapidly growing, unique and fun artisan online marketplace that lets you post your handmade creations and share them with the rest of the world.

MadeItMyself provides endless possibilities for the people who love art and originality and want to make a good living from their respective trades. http://www.madeitmyself.com

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