Sweater Surgery: A Success Story

The last time you saw my Warm Breeze Cardigan (that would be Tanis Lavallee's Coolbreeze Cardigan), it looked something like this:

Major sweater fail. Monumental fail. So much fail.

I set the sweater aside for a bit while I pondered how to best remedy this situation.

I really couldn't stomach the idea of ripping out the ribbed cuff (ugh), the colorwork (double ugh), adding 4" to the sleeve, and then reknitting said colorwork and hem.

I knew if that was my plan going forward, this sweater would languish in WIP purgatory forever.

So I came up with a daring new plan.

I would cut the cuff and colorwork portion off, knit the sleeve to the right length, and then graft them back on.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

Actually, it probably sounds terrifying, but it actually was pretty simple.

 A quick snip just above the colorwork . .. 

 Slowly unraveled, placing the cuff stitches on waste yarn as I went . . .

And tada! Sleeve stitches back on the needles, ready to work.

I knit the necessary 4", and then set about kitchenering the two pieces back together.

  Looking a little rough at first . . . .

 A few stitches seem to have been put on the needle backward, but oh well . . .

 Just needs a little blocking, I think . . .

 And voila! Sure, it's not perfect, but I doubt anyone's going to come up to stare at my sweater sleeves.

A wearable sweater!