Oh my. I got a wild hair this morning and figured I’d share it here. I did start that pretty lace shawl Thursday, it’s coming along nicely. I’m about 35 rows into it. Of course, there are about 344 rows in the whole shawl, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize that by the last of those rows, there are 693 stitches on the needles. This one will be a long, albeit pleasant, slog.
That wasn’t my wild hair. Here it is.
This is a Peace Fleece sweater that I knit for John a couple of years ago. It has always bugged the shit out of me, since it’s an inch or two too short for him. Every time he wears it, which is a lot, I notice it and it annoys me that I didn’t fix this at the time.
I have plenty of that yarn left, so this morning I started it. After a little googling, I found a video by Eunny Jang that shows how to lengthen or shorten a piece after the fact. Since this is just straight stockinette, it shouldn’t be that complicated, right?
You start by undoing the seams at the sides. I’m pretty enthusiastic about weaving in ends, so this took a bit of work to get started.
Then you pick up a row of stitches where you want to add length. Eunny shows it in her video, but basically you pick up the right side of the “v” on each stitch, making sure you stay in the same row.
Once you have all the stitches on a needle, the fun begins. You snip (CAREFULLY) the stitches in the row above the one you just picked up, pulling off the ribbing piece as you go.
Which leaves you with live stitches on your needle. Then you just join the new yarn, and knit it as long as you need, knit new ribbing, and Bob’s your uncle. Do the same on the other half (remind me to make them the same length), fix the seams, and you’re done.
I had a brief thought to save the ribbing piece and just graft the two together, but came to my senses on that one. I could probably knit a whole damned sweater in the time it would take to graft that much neatly.
I’ll let you know how this goes. I might need whisky before the day is done.
You’re a braver knitter than I am!
You are a brave woman, Lorette. I need whisky just reading this.
I am going with brilliant on this one. You can do it, no sweat!
You are SO brave! This is like an episode of tech knitting 🙂
Haha..”Bob’s your uncle”. You crack me up. That is going to feel so good when you’re done. Plus it won’t drive you nuts anymore when he wears it.
Oh, Lorette, I so love your blog! This post just cracked me up!!!! I hope it all worked out perfectly……and that you rewarded yourself with a bit of whiskey anyways……..
I vote brilliant! Good luck!
Brilliant. You’re going to be so happy to finally fix that. What a creative solution.
Of course it’s brilliant! You’ve got to save that beautiful sweater. You know he’ll wear it forever!
I’ve done it on sweaters knit in the round. Two halves? Brave, brave woman
I’m sure everyone already thought of this, but mark the row you are starting on both the front and back. You can easily count how many rows you added to the first half. That way you will know how many rows you added when you start the second half and you won’t need to go back to add or subtract rows once you start sewing it up. Been there done that and did it the hard way–learned my lesson.
Ah, you finally HAD to fix it. Been there, done that. It sounds crazy/harder than it actually is. Had the same problem with a sweater I made for my husband, and did exactly the same ‘fix’. He wears that sweater all the time now, and I can enjoy him in it so much more! You go, girl!!