What to Do When It Doesn't Fit - Sweater Surgery

My first adventure in "sweater surgery," as I like to call it, was with this sweater. I spent lots of time on it, and after steeking, found it was just too tight in the shoulders and sleeves. I was incredibly disappointed, and found myself at a standstill. I showed it to an experienced Fair Isle knitter, who gave me permission to chop it up and do whatever I wanted. She said, "Who says the sleeves have to match the body? Why NOT take it in a wild and crazy direction?" These are words I've lived by (at least in my sweater knitting) ever since. 

​With my most recent sweater, I had no way to truly check the fit until I'd steeked the armhole openings. I also was having so much fun knitting that I wanted to work "just one more repeat" when I should have stopped. 

The result was a sweater that had something goofy going on at the shoulders, and was way too long (but not long enough for a sweater dress!).

It can be really frustrating to work so hard and have and end result that you're just not happy with. Luckily, knitting offers endless possibilities for repair and renovation.

The first thing I did was work on the shoulders. I'd worked short rows for shoulder shaping, and maybe did a little too much shaping. I clipped one stitch, unraveled about four rows total, then grafted everything back together. 

Next, I clipped a single stitch where I wanted to shorten the sweater, then unpicked that row, placing the live stitches on a circular needle about 3 sizes smaller than what I used to knit the sweater. Since I wasn't going to knit from that, needle, it didn't affect gauge, and it was much easier to grab the stitches with the smaller needle.

I could have knit new ribbing, but instead decided to graft the old ribbing back on, so that involved cutting off the extra and picking up the live stitches for the ribbing. Then a week's worth of grafting!