New Leaf

Way back in August I decided to knit a sweater for The Woolly Thistle sweater KAL.  I finished it this week!

So I had a lot going on and I have had a lot of other big projects in the meantime.  I'm happy to have it off the needles and ready to wear now, although that seemed like it wasn't going to be the case for awhile.  I will explain,

The main color is Jamieson & Smith 2-Ply Jumper Weight in color 202 from the cone.  The contrast color is handspun 2-ply Falkland wool.  The fiber was dyed by Kim Dyes Yarn and is the colorway Turquoise Ore.  It is funny because even though I didn't plan it to be exactly like the sample in the pattern, the yarn is very similar in color to the Spincycle yarn that was used.  

I specifically mentioned that the J&S was on the cone because their coned yarns still contain spinning oil and really bloom a lot after being washed.  This is the third sweater I have knit from their coned yarn and I have found that when I knit sweaters using this yarn I need to knit them an inch or two longer than what I want because the fabric ends up shortening in length slightly once that spinning oil is out of there.  So when I was knitting the sleeves I reached a point where I was pretty sure they were long enough and thought maybe I should just stop and make the final decreases and start the cuff...but then I remembered the shrink factor and I kept going.  That was a mistake.  They may have shrunk up an inch or so but when I finished the sweater and got it all blocked and tried it on it was obvious- the sleeves were too big!

I'm the type of person who tend to just push my sleeves up to my elbows anyway but that was not going to work with this sweater.  The fit of the sleeves is meant to be loose and the cuffs are colorwork and no ribbing so they weren't going to stay up if I did shove them up.  I can tolerate slightly long sleeves, but I don't want them to be any longer than the palm of my hand.  The cuffs came past my fingertips.  It LOOKED too big, it felt too big.

I had spent almost 8 months working on this sweater on and off and I was so ready to have it done.  I knew I was going to have to do something about the sleeves if I was going to have a wearable garment.  I took to Facebook with my dilemma and several of my knitting friends popped in with some advice on how to proceed.  

I had already considered a few things.  The cuffs are about 5 inches long.  Could I rip back until 5 inches before where I wanted the sleeves to end and reknit from there?  Maybe, but the stitch count wouldn't be right.  I would have to make several decreases all at once to get the stitch count right and I worried that would look weird.  It was the same issue if I cut the cuff off and just reattached it at that point.  Plus, as I mentioned, the sleeves were kind of baggy.  Maybe I should just go back to the armhole and start over on a smaller needle and reconfigure the decreases.    Whatever I did, after finally finishing the sweater, did I really want to frog the sleeves and take it back to WIP status?  I kind of wanted to throw it in time out for an undetermined length of time.  Especially since it was already mid-April and although I see it as a spring sweater, I wasn't going to have that much more time to wear it this season.  But then it would be hanging over my head that I had this sweater than needed fixed.  

One of my friends absolutely advocated for the time-out option.  Another friend argued for fixing it and getting it done.  I had in fact asked that friend for a pep talk as she had frogged and reknit a sweater recently to fix it and I think I just needed some moral support.  A couple other friends chimed in with the sweater surgery suggestion and one pointed out that the issue seemed to be that the sleeves were too long and too baggy, but that maybe the baggy wasn't so bad if the length was right.

At that point I decided what I would do.  I would put a lifeline in a couple rows above where the colorwork started and then snip and frog up from there.  I decided to keep the needle the same since I agreed the positive ease on the sleeves would probably be fine if the length was better, and besides, I knew what my row gauge was on those needles.  If I was keeping the needles the same size, I didn't need to frog the whole sleeve.  In fact, looking at the pictures I took, I realized the upper arm fit just fine.  I decided to only frog back to where the decreases started.  From there I needed to reknit 7 inches until grafting the cuff back on.  I figured out my decrease rate and had a plan.  Once I knew what I was going to do I was ready to just get it done.

Securing stitches before snipping into the sleeve

I stared project "fix the sleeves" on Monday afternoon and reattached the cuff by Tuesday.  Wednesday and Thursday I fixed the second sleeve and rewashed and blocked yesterday and now it is officially all done and ready to wear.

I used Kitchener stitch to graft the cuff back on.  Keeping the right tension is tricky and if you know what you are looking for you can probably see it.  But it is a case of no one is going to be looking for that most likely.  On the first sleeve I think I got the stitches a little too tight in at least one section and then I tried to keep things looser when I did the second sleeve and it was a little too loose.  I was able to snug that sleeve up a bit though.  One thing I didn't do was wash the yarn I frogged prior to reknitting it.  I could blame impatience and not wanting to lose the motivation and momentum I had, but it was also that to rewash it I would have had to cut it and then skein it up and then wind it up and I really hate having to change yarns and weave in ends on sleeves, I feel like it is always more obvious on the sleeve for some reason so I try really hard to avoid that.  

 It was definitely annoying to have to spend several more days on a project I thought was going to be done but I am glad that I did because now I feel a lot better wearing it.  I'm also glad it only spent a day in time out because now it really truly is done.