As some of you might know, the one thing I dislike about knitting top-down sweaters is knitting sleeves in the round. For years I have followed Karen Templer's example and knit my sleeves flat. You should check out her article, How (and why) to knit top-down sleeves flat. I like knitting my sleeves this way, but if you are knitting any patterned stitches, it takes a bit of planning.
When I was scrolling through IG a couple of weeks ago, I clicked on a video from Ashley Lillis, and "poof," I was introduced to a magical technique. How have I not heard about this before?
What is it? Use two 16-inch circular needles of the same size to knit your sleeves. When you pick up and add stitches for the underarm, do so on one of the needles. Then, simply knit onto the second needle for the next round. Round after round....knit off one needle onto the other. The beginning of the round will be when you start with the new needle. Here is a video of me using this technique on my Cozy Classic Raglan.
Side note, if you are like me and tend to knit in the round on the tight side when knitting a small circumference, you can go up a needle size for the sleeve to get gauge.
I hope this has inspired you to give this magical technique a try. It has truly made me #knitandbehappy!