The Knitting Fiend

Rita emailed and asked:

I am a novice knitter and just finished a beautiful sweater which is an almost perfect fit except that the length came out a little too long. I wasn’t aware of this until I had completed it and would like to know if you have a method for correcting this. Any help/instructions you can provide will be very much appreciated.

Guess what? There is a good method to shorten most overly long sweaters! The method is best learned on stockinette, but can be applied to many, but not all, stitch types. Today I’m going to demonstrate the technique using a stockinet swatch, and tomorrow I’ll show how I did it for garter stitch.

What is the method? Split the knitting in half, rip out the extra length you don’t need, then graft. If you don’t understand that and want to learn, read the rest of the lesson:

Step 1: Try on sweater; discover some aspect is too long or short.
Step 2: If the sweater is already sewn together, take apart the pieces you need to adjust, lay flat.
Step 3: Decide how much length to remove or add and where it might be easiest to remove or add the length.
Step 4: Place two lifelines on either side of the bit you plan to remove, then cut out or carefully remove the fabric between the lifelines.
Step 5: Graft two pieces together.
Step 6: Pat yourself on the back!

Need more details? Here’s how!
Assume I have gone through steps 1-3.

My piece is now lying flat as shown in the image to the left; the cast on is at the bottom, the bind off at the top. I’ve decided I want to remove the fabric between rows. I’ve figured out I want to remove the 1″ of fabric between row 1 and row 2. Note there are no increases or decreases between rows 1 and 2; both contain the same number of stitches.

What if you need to add length? Inser the lifelines so there is only 1 row between row 1 and 2. (Or, if you like three rows. Just not very many.)

So, we are at step 4! Insert a lifeline in both rows 1 and 2 as in the photo above. Notice I used a double pointed needle for row 2 and a strand of yarn for row 1. You can use whichever you prefer. I used both for purposes of illustration. (To learn how to set a lifeline, read Rip Safely; be very careful not to avoid splitting any yarn when you do this.)

Step 5: Remove (or add) fabric between these two rows. First, if you are removing fabric and don’t mind wasting yarn, you can just take the scissors and cut right between row 1 & row 2 — preferably closer to row 2 than 1. Rip back to 1. Then try to rip up to row 2. When ripping to row 2, you’ll discover it’s impossible to rip the edge stitches. You’ll need to cut and unravel using the tip of your needle. This will waste yarn.

If you want to waste the least possible amount of yarn, or you are adding length, take your scissors and snip a stitch about 2″ from the left selvedge of the row and then from the right selvedge. Below I’m snipping in the center and the right selvedge. (I snipped in the center because I wanted to make sure I’d get a second chance at taking photos if I goofed.)

Now, using the tip of the tapestry needle, tease out a yarn end until it’s long enough to grab, then pull on it. The fabric will gather up and you’ll be able to pull it out up to the point where you snipped.

The fabric will be almost parted in two now. Use the tip of a needle to tease out the remaining stitches on each edge. You will now have the fabric in two pieces. You’ll also have a little tail of yarn at each edge. Leave the one on the top piece just where it is.

If you need to remove fabric in order to shorten the sweater, pull on the one attached to the lower piece and unravel to row 1. Put those stitches on a needle with the point facing right. If you need to add length, insert a needle into the row 1 and knit the number of rows required to length the sweater just enough.

Now, you are ready to graft!

But stop a second and check a few things:

• If your selvedges are knit in garter stitches like mine, you should have one yarn tail at the left edge and one at the right edge. See how I have a little tuft on the left of needle 2 and a long tail on the right of needle 1? That’s ok. the opposite organization is ok too. But if they are both on the same edge, either unravel 1 more row or re-knit 1 more row. (It’s prudent to apply this rule for any and all fancy stitches, but it’s essential for garter stitch.)
• Check whether or not your stitches “sit right” when viewed as oriented in the photo. (Read the article on life lines. It shows you the right way.) The tips of the needles should point to the right when when the swatch is oriented as shown in the photo.
• Count stitches. There should appear to be one fewer in row 2 than 1. I seem have 23 stitches on row 2 and 24 on row 1. That’s correct; it has to do with the whole “upside downess” of the V shape of the stitches.

Now, we’ll really graft. If this swatch were 100% stockinet with no selvedges, I’d just start grafting at the right edge and proceed to the left. However, I have 2 stitches of garter stitch at the edge. I want to deal with that later! So, on the right edge, I put 3 stitches on the lower right edge and 2 on the upper right edge on “stitch holders” (aka, straggly pieces of string.)

Then, I threaded a tapestry needle with a fairly long strand of white yarn and began to graft (aka work Kitchener stitch.)

I inserted the tip of the silver colored tapestry needle into the first stitch on the lower needle, going from left to right as shown below left; notice the tip goes in from the purl side and comes out on the knit side. I drew yarn through leaving a fairly long tail on the right edge.

That was the set up. The next bit is going to get repetitive, so I’m going to number things:

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1. I dropped the first two stitches off the top needle tip, inserted the needle tip into the right hand stitch from right to left, entering from the knit side then I pushed the tip from front to back through the next stitch. See below right. Afterwards, I pulled the yarn through. (On later repeats, drop only 1 stitch from the needle. )

2. Now, I inserted the tip from knit side into the first stitch on the lower row– that’s the one with white yarn already coming out of it. I pushed the tip to the purl side, and then pushed it through the hole in the next stitch to the left, see right.

3. I drew the yarn through then I adjusted the tightness of the stitch formed by pulling gently on the yarn.

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Notice the yarn is coming out the front of a stitch on needle 1? You can now repeat steps 1-4 above. After you repeat once, you will have created two “white” stitches, and you wiil think, “I bet I can drop the several stitches off the needles do this faster!”

Yes, you can. Once you feel comfortable,drop 4 or 5 stitches off at a time and grafting away. You should occasionally adjust the tightness of the stitches; if necessary, pull a gently with the tip of a needle and draw extra yarn to the left.

Soon, you’ll reach the garter stitch selvedge and you’ll need to adjust your method. I can’t tell you precisely how because one of two things will happen. If you examine the garter stitch repletion on your swatch, you will either notice there is should be a purl bar at the top or bottom of this row. Which? It just depends on how you ripped!

When I examined mine, I needed a purl bar at the top of the row. How do you deal with this? Because you need a purl bar at the top of the row, insert the needle tip into the top stitch from back to front! (See photo to the left.) Then, insert into the next stitch to the right from front to back. When you draw the yarn, you’ll notice the purl bar on front.

I didn’t need a purl bar at the bottom of the row, so kept inserting from the front to back on the lower row. I continued this new way to the edge. Notice for my final step was to insert the needle tip into the stitch with the blue end sticking out? That anchors it nicely.

Oh, but I wasn’t done. Remember I started three stiches from the right hand edge? I now grafted the other edge, working left to right and finito! Then, I threw the swatch on the lawn and took the photo you see way, way above left!

Whew! That was long. The good news is that took much longer to explain than do!