Remember the Debbie Bliss ski sweater that I knitted? Well I washed her.
And then I blocked her and tried her on. There is no picture of this bit as at that point I had a nervous breakdown. It was all way too long. Like a lot way too long. In the sleeves and in the body. I have no idea why as I think that my tension is right. I could go away and work it out but I don't want to as I don't particularly care whether this is my fault or Debbie's fault - either way, I have a sweater that is substantially too big for me.
Now, there was quite simply NO WAY that I was frogging it (after all that fairisle, are you kidding?) and there was also NO WAY that I was going to throw it behind the sofa and pretend that I had never knitted it - I'd put way too much effort in it for that.
So the only other option was to work out how to shorten the sleeves and body. I had a sneaky suspicion that might not be easy and I was right. The sweater has a large chunk of ribbing on the body and cuffs and then carries on in stocking stitch. Unfortunately, as soon as the stocking stitch starts, so does the sleeve shaping and I really couldn't afford to lose that. So there was only one thing for it: grafting the ribbing. Argh.
I put it off for days. Actually, make that I put it off for weeks. I have been between jobs for a bit and therefore have had all the time in the world to myself and yet still I procrastinated. I really didn't fancy it. Would you have?
But then I found this tutorial. Not just a tutorial on grafting but a tutorial on grafting ribbing. I love this blog.
So first things first, I thought I'd knit a swatch with both stocking stitch and ribbing in cotton dk so that I could practice my grafting. Especially seeing as I'd never done any. And seeing as I am quite convinced that cutting any form of knitting with scissors is just wrong (and no, I have never tried steeking and don't currently intend to).
Cutting the knitting was very very painful. But once you've done it, you have no choice but to continue and hope that it doesn't all unravel horribly.
I did a bit of the grafting and found that in stocking stitch it wasn't all that hard.
You can even spot where I got a bit cocky and tried to do a few purl stitches.
So then it was on to the ribbing grafting. Which is a lot harder. Mostly because you have to really think about how the yarn enters and exits each stitch, especially where you go from a knit to a purl and vice versa. So quite a challenge really. But I got there.
Then it was time to move on to the actual sweater. A lot more scary because if I got this wrong, I had no idea how I would go about sorting it out. I measured, counted stitches and checked and double checked about 4 times before cutting anything. Here are the sleeves ready to get the snip.
As you can see from the sleeves, I had a fair amount of ribbing to take out (yes everything between the 2 white lines, about 20 rows or 7cm).
This is the grafted bit post surgery. Bear with me for a shot of the final thing, tomorrow the husband will be taking pics of me wearing it. I think that it was worth the effort even if it does look a little less good with less ribbing.
Half way through I realised that I hadn't taken into account how hard it would be to graft on such a dark navy blue yarn. That certainly added a whole level of complexity that I hadn't seen coming.
Posted by Amelia at July 1, 2007 05:36 PMWow, for being so very brave! I think, I would never have dared to cut into a new knitted sweater, although I did it several times already with very very old sweaters (remember the fashion style a lot of years ago when sweaters had the shape of children tents?). This post is so encouraging for the next time, when I`ve knitted while watching TV and completely forgot where to stop, and believe me, this happens very often to me, so my sweaters and cardis are always a bit longer than intended. Great post!
Posted by: Krawuggl at July 7, 2007 06:05 PMWow Amelia, you are a woman to be proud of. Now no jumper is safe behind the sofa. I'm still holding my breath after reading this to see what the finished jumper looks like. I am in awe.
You must really love the jumper - hurry up and post the pictures!
Sarah x
Posted by: Sarah at July 4, 2007 10:07 AMOh it must have been a nightmare decision to cut into all that lovely work, but all the hard work paid off and you have a lovely sweater to be proud of. Far better than hiding it behind the sofa. Another skill learnt in the process, Well done, you are very brave and such an inspiration. Look forward to seeing your pictures
Posted by: Tracy at July 3, 2007 10:06 AMYou're very brave! Well done on biting the bullet and saving your jumper.
Posted by: Mary at July 3, 2007 07:31 AMWow - that was really brave of you to embark on a technique like this. I will never dare to & just hide the sweater at the back of the closet. I am planning on knitting the same sweater & also have bought the yarn, so it's good to know of this problem. Good luck & can't wait to see it on you!
Posted by: Ann at July 3, 2007 01:45 AMWell done! The sweater is going to be so lovely on you that it will be worth it. I feel obliged to do something with the sweater that I put aside (when I ran out of yarn for the collar) now that you have put us all to shame. ;-)
Posted by: Jacinta at July 2, 2007 12:52 PMOh, well done you!
I would never have dared to do it.
Can't wait to see the results.
Wow. Nothing like starting small, eh? The original sweater you knit is one of the inspiration points for my fair-isle-in-design project: must get back to that at some point! I look forwards to seeing the sweater 'on'.
Posted by: Alison at July 2, 2007 10:53 AMYou are brave and I am impressed. I would have ditched it in disgust!
Posted by: Lin at July 2, 2007 08:08 AMI am knitting the same sweater and I put it aside because of that very problem. I am pretty tall and it still seems to be way, way long!!!!! There must be some sort of mistake in the pattern.
Posted by: Diane at July 2, 2007 04:18 AMYou go girl! Very impressed! Mine would have been behind the couch, never to be mentioned again.
Posted by: Sheila at July 2, 2007 03:05 AMYou're leaving us hanging?!?! I can't handle the suspense.
The two sleeves look just like patients on the operating table don't they.
You're a braver woman than I!!
I've had to do that too! An easier thing to do is to cut, pick up the sts and rib to the wrist rather than grafting.
Posted by: dawn at July 1, 2007 11:59 PMWell done you! Very brave indeed.
Posted by: Kirsty at July 1, 2007 10:43 PMUrgh rather you than me!
Posted by: blueadt at July 1, 2007 06:59 PMBoring??? nail biting!! I tried grating 2x2 ribbing a while back without the benefit of that tutorial and gave up in disgust. well done for salvaging the jumper, can't wait to see it on.
Posted by: anna at July 1, 2007 06:18 PM