Extreme Rescue Mission

I have begun the extensive surgery required to add length to my Sea and Sand Sweater.

 

Karen Frisa pointed out--correctly--that I could cut off the corrugated ribbing and then knit up, ending with a two-color kitchener row connecting the old body to the addition. This neatly resolves the half-stitch-off problem of knitting downward off of the body. However, if you have ever cut into two-color knitting, you know that the bottom part is easy to pick up, but the bottom of the stitches on the top? They get all wonky.

To avoid this problem (I hope), I first picked up the stitch and knit into it with blue-violet Tahki Cotton Classic (the right size and nicely slippery without leaving fuzzy bits). Now I will a have nice row of stitches to follow when I do the weaving.

 

 

This cotton row also made it easy to locate, cut and remove the plain row between the ribbing and the body.

 

I'm ready to start knitting--but I gotta tell you, this took hours!

Comments

[Lynn in Tucson]

I tip my hat to you!

I'm trying to rip back and re-graft between lace & ribbing (I knit too much lace and the sweater's too long). I've separated them, knit a new bit of ribbing, knit along with a contrasting color to have something to follow, but...ugh. It's black, it's fingering weight, it's starting to feel impossible.

[Joy]

Oh.my.goodness... what a job, but the sweater is gorgeous and well worth the effort!

[M-H]

This is extreme knitting, Well done. I did something similar with a Kaffe Fassett jacket (blogged at http://manainkblog.typepad.com/witty_knitter/2009/07/reuse-recycle-refashion.html), but it was in bulky yarn and I was cutting the band off to replace it with a hem - no grafting required. I tips me hat to ya!

[Karen Frisa]

I'm so excited that you're doing this!! And yes, that row above the cut is definitely wonky, but your solution to that issue sounds good. I'll look forward to seeing your progress! And you will be so happy when you can wear that beautiful sweater.

[Caroline]

Yikes! The sweater is gorgeous but WOW that's a painful process! I don't think I could pull off a two color graft either! but I bet you can.

[Another Joan]

Wow!! But still less time than ripping and re-knitting, right??

[Gretchen]

I'd love to look over your shoulder as you do this-- not to make you nervous, but to see what's going on, especially with the picking up and knitting into the target row with waste yarn. If all goes well, you could teach this! I'd gladly practice this on swatches, to feel able to do this when I really needed to.

[Anne]

Is Karen Frisa not a genius?? I wish I had her on hand to help with my knitting challenges...