How To Pick Up Stitches In Knitting For Sleeves. Your pattern says to pick up 200 stitches (or to crochet evenly across for a total of 200 stitches). Start with the right sleeve, and using a circular needle with the right side of the back facing you, start at the underarm and pick up stitches all around the back arm scythe to the shoulder seam.
Be sure to pick up both strands of the stitch. I like to start my sleeves at one side of the underarm cast on, but you can start in the middle if you want to. There will be one stitch more than there was cast on for the body.
To pick up stitches you need the right side of your work facing you (the knit side).
I often prefer to do this continental style, with the yarn in my left hand. As you are picking up the underarm stitches, it's important to pay close attention to the corners, at each side of the sleeve, between the held sleeve stitches (from the yoke) and the picked up stitches. It's really easy to get unsightly gaps there. Then start knitting sleeve according to pattern.