Sweater Surgery

When I was a new knitter, I would have gasped if you told me to cut apart my knitting. No way, no ma'am.

I distinctly remember a red Aran sweater my mother had - full of bobbles, cables, and knit at such a tight gauge it makes my fingers hurt just thinking about it. But she never wore it because it was too big on her. So she cut it apart and incorporated parts of the sweater into a lovely fitted jacket. 

I was shocked. Won't it unravel? Who would cut into a knitted garment that someone had clearly spent so much time on?

The truth is, that while knitting does unravel, there are lots of ways to cut knitted fabric. Steeking is perhaps my favorite and most-used method, and this sweater does indeed have a steek running down the front. 

Some design and fit issues left me less than thrilled with the finished product. That's the thing about experiments - they don't always work. My problems with this sweater were:

1. I didn't like the circular yoke. I'd originally envisioned set-in sleeves or a saddle shoulder construction, a la my Scrappy Sweater. But I did a circular yoke because it seemed like a good idea at the time. As soon as I went down that path, I regretted it, but as I so often do, forged ahead anyways. Whoops.
2. I was prepared to live with the circular yoke - after all, this is just an experiment in stashbusting and design - but it was too shallow. And, as circular yokes often do, it didn't come up high enough on my back neck, despite working short rows to compensate.
3. The sleeves were too tight. Combined with the yoke depth being too shallow, this made the sweater uncomfortable. 

I'd already woven in lots of ends, which makes unraveling difficult. Plus, the yarns (mostly handspun Icelandic thel and Shetland Spindrift) don't unravel so easily. Which makes them great for steeking, but not for correcting my mistakes.

So I decided to try something I haven't tried before. I cut the yoke right off, and picked up the live stitches onto my knitting needles, and the sweater is ready for yoke attempt #2. It was easier than I could have imagined.

Some tips: 

1. Cut as straight a line as possible. This will minimize waste. It was easy on this sweater because the colorwork clearly delineated separation between rows.
2. Make sure you're only cutting through one layer at a time. Sounds obvious, I know, but there was a point while cutting that I had a panicky moment. After that, I laid the sweater out flat and all was well.
3. Unravel the cut stitches, and pick up the live ones. That's really all there is to it.

This sweater was knit from the bottom up, so it's super easy to cut and pick up the stitches to continue working the yoke as if nothing had happened. 

It's also possible to do it the other way - say I had knit the sweater top-down and wanted to replace only the yoke. I'd cut just like I did, but then I'd need to graft the new yoke to the old one. This sometimes leaves a bit of a line, but it's definitely doable. 

I'd hoped that the end of January would mean that I have a new sweater to wear, but ultimately I want a sweater that is actually wearable, and that I like, so I'm willing to have it take more time.

xx,

​Pamela