The Insomniac Knitter Strikes Again!!

I woke hubby up whilst crawling into bed last night at 4:30 am. And no, that's not a typo. :( I'm a total insomniac.**

So - since he was already awake :) - I asked him if he wanted to get up and try on his sweater. I'm this close to being finished with it. I just have to sew sown the hem on one arm and the body, kitchner one armpit, and weave in about three stray ends and then fini!

Hubbs is a good sport - and also totally out of it when he's been sleeping - so he agreed to try the sweater on and - tada! - it fits. He loved it. I gotta say - I thought it looked pretty good.

My only problem with it is that I felt like it was a bit tight in the armpit area. Of course I tried it on too. :)

So my question is - do you think that I can block the armpits a bit bigger? I was thinking I need to buy one of those wooly board thingys to block this and all the other fair isle sweaters in my future.

And why are the armpits tight in the first place? I used EZ's percentage system and as far as I can tell there are three possible reasons:

1. I just didn't measure quite right. I think I did but now I wonder. Just how are you supposed to measure from the armpit to the neck anyway? That bothered me because it was so vague. Where exactly are the starting and ending points for that measurement?

2. Maybe I didn't leave enough stitches off the body and arm for the armpit area. I doubt this one though because I just did the math for that number. I don't see how I could have gotten that wrong. (And yes I used a calculator AND double checked. I'm well aware that I suck with numbers!).

3. This seems the most likely - I didn't do the yoke deep enough. I only did a nine inch yoke because it really looked like the ten inch would have been just too long - but now I'm wondering about that.

Oh and I guess there is a #4 possibility as well. Hubbs thinks that a little blocking will take care of the whole problem.

I guess we'll see - but any suggestions/ideas/previous experience would be very appreciated.

**I've been wondering how many knitters also tend to be insomniacs or at least have trouble getting to sleep. I'm betting a whole bunch of us are knitting away in the wee small hours. It always seems like crafty people are non-sleepers. And vice versa - almost as if we sub-consciously took up some craft to keep us busy and to have something to do other than to watch infomercials. Am I right??**