How To
A Thumbhole!
I’ve been wishing for thumbholes on a sweater since 2007, when reader Anna sent us pictures of her easy modification on her Perfect Sweater.
A decade later, I’m giving the thumbhole lifestyle a try, and I have to say: it’s pretty fantastic. It is the perfect solution to that thing that happens sometimes: sleeves of extraordinary length.
This is the second Easel Sweater I’ve been motoring on, from MDK Field Guide No. 3. After blocking this one, the sleeves gained a ton of length—two inches!
I had two simultaneous thoughts: a) WHUT and b) THUMBHOLE TIME!
Here’s how.
It’s as easy as can be. This works only on sleeves knit flat. I mean, you can accomplish this on a sleeve knit in the round if you—ugh, never mind. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!
First, knit a sleeve too long by mistake.
Second, sulk for ten seconds.
Third, get your mattress stitch on. Here, I seamed an inch, from the cuff upwards. Then I cut the yarn and skipped the next ten rows, leaving them unseamed. Then I rejoined the yarn and commenced mattress stitch toward the top of the sleeve. This is a worsted weight yarn; your row count will vary if you’re using a different weight of yarn. Basically, aim for about an inch-and-a-half-wide hole.
Anna did a decorative edging to her buttonholes, but I decided not to decorate mine.
They sort of fold up and vanish when not in use.
You could think of this sweater as a comprehensive set of wrist warmers. Very comprehensive.
Happy with this lemonade result to my sour long-sleeve problem. Finishing up the neckband now, after which I shall parade around in front of somebody with a camera so as to prove to you that this is an entire sweater and not just sleeves.
Thanks, Ann – still much enjoying reading and wearing my thumbhole perfect sweater 10 years on! Anna (of the 2007 thumbholes)
Anna, beautiful Perfect Sweater! Are you still blogless?! (MDK got me in a Warren Zevon frame of mind the other day – Anna the blogless patent lawyer could be the basis for alternate lyrics to Roland the headless Thompson gunner …)
Ha ha ha! Still blogless.
Oh my gosh! Anna! So glad you and your Perfect Sweater are doing well.
Tres hip!
Wow Ann, you are really cranking these sweaters out. Love the thumb hole trick and love the orange bedspread?? it is laying on.
Two thumbs up!
Ok , you know someone was thinking it!
I love thumbholes! Mostly on ready to wear. Because….. i have long arms. So i sew it shut and voila! Sleeves long enough! But i just might add them to a knitted garment too. Thanks for the idea!
We need to get together since my arms are too short for sweaters in my size! You could take the extra length to add to your too short sleeves!!!
Wait, did you ever post FO photos of the first Easel sweater? Did I miss that somehow? I was in such suspense to see how that one would come out…
Great idea!!
What a great idea! Every sweater I buy (shame in me!) has sleeves so long that I have to roll the cuff up. And then I ush the cuffs up to my elbows. I, wondering if there’s a way to a wat to make thumb holes?
Also thinking about planning for thumb holes and knitting them in — or rather, making a slit as one knits along, much like thumbs in mitts. One would need to be careful of placement. I think planned thumb holes would be more comfortable than leaving a slit in the seam. Thoughts?
who da boss YOU da Boss ❤️
I keep thinking I’ll knit a thumb-hole sweater! I love the idea, probably because I have long arms, and I just love the idea of sleeves that are extra-long!
Great solution! Good thinking.
Very nice. Never saw one before. Great idea.
So Much Nicer than that time holes in the cuffs of my huge sweatshirt functioned as thumbholes but looked like ragged gaps. It was my college Riding Team sweatshirt, and I wore that thing until it was in tatters – remnant (literally) of the only athletic thing I had ever done in my life. But I digress. Thumbholes rock!
Thumbholes are super-easy to put in if you’re knitting the sleeves in the round from the top down, as on a top-down sweater. I made one a couple of years ago by just binding off a few stitches on one round and doing a backwards-loop cast on on the next round. Since I was trying on the sweater all the time for fit as I knit it (yay, top-down sweaters!), it was easy to figure out where the thumbhole should go. The cuffs/mitts/ are ribbed, so it’s easy to fold them back when I need my hands entirely free.
So cool! I was envisioning a steek or staple gun or barbed wire–just seemed sort of a hard thing to accomplish. Thanks for this!
Another option on a top down circular sleeve, if you want a vertical slit, would be to temporarily stop knitting in the round. Work several rows back and forth, and then rejoin and continue in the round.
I can’t imagine how to do this *after* the sleeve is knit. Ouch.
Ann, did you already knit the body, too? Did you have to adjust body length after knitting? Or were the two sleeves a very large gauge swatch? I love knowing other knitters’ processes!
I’ve only done sleeves in the round, which are annoying to fix but not deadly. A knitted-flat, too-long sleeve? would be the WORST! This is an amazing tip.
This is great but how do you do this if you are knitting in the round?