on the needles

I was merrily knitting along on the second sleeve of my sweater when I looked at the stitches, I mean really looked at the stitches and they looked smaller than the body of the sweater so I counted my stitches and sure enough my stitches were smaller. So I started another pair of socks to think about the situation.  Why are my stitiches so much smaller??  What was I doing different?? Do I need a glass of wine to knit the sleeves to relax my stitches?  I was knitting in the round using the same needles, why knit flat when I can knit in the round and not have three sweater parts flopping around. Why were my stitches smaller?  I wasn't drinking wine for the body of the sweater.  Knit the toes of the socks and think, think, think. My mind wanders to a sweater pattern I thought about knitting, it was knit flat using 2 different size needles the knit rows used the large needles and the purl rows used the smaller. This puzzled me at the time so when I was looking for yarn for a sweater a year ago I had that pattern and another that I knit instead because it was knit in the round, and asked the lady in the yarn shop.  She said knitters typically purl looser than they knit. That is what I was doing different, no purl rows since I was knitting in the round. She also said she had fixed needle cable needles with a large and small needle. I ripped my sleeve back and went up 2 sized and now the stitches are the same size as the body of the sweater.  The purl stitches in a basket weave pattern would also explain why I always reach for those socks to wear first.  They have more stretch to go over my heal. The bright colors of the sock yarn is such a relief  from these gray days. DD picked out the yarn, the color is tropical fish from Zauberball. Her bday is next week. They might be done in time.  Then I will get back to my sleeves. linking to OTN at Judy's Patchworktimes.--Ann--