Knitting sleeves

I hate knitting sleeves. I haven't knitted a jumper with sleeves for about five years, and I'd forgotten just how much I hate knitting the sleeves.

The front and back pieces of a jumper seem to take no time at all, and you're pleasantly distracted near the end of it by all that interesting shaping you have to do for the neck and sleeve lines. Once you've done the front and back, you think, "Ooh, nearly finished - this won't take long now".

But then come the sleeves. For some reason, the area of fabric needed to cover the human arm seems to be roughly the same dimensions as the entire country of Luxembourg. Sleeves are huge, long, and never-endingly boring to knit.

I have knitted one sleeve, and am half-way through the final one now, gritting my teeth and facing the knitting equivalent of the marathon runner's wall. The crowds are cheering - the finishing line is in sight...