kinky knitting…

 You're not going to believe what I did....
and you may wonder why I did it...
I told you before I have a bit of an obsession with that raglan cardigan and seeing how I can change it up. (see ‘who needs Sudoku? Nov 2/13’ and ‘1rt raglan, March 12/14)
I have 'Borderline' from #25 - how long ago was that? 2003... So, basically it was a lace tunic, A-line shaped because of the lace pattern (diminishing – there are more holes across each row of the pattern at the bottom and gets less as it moves up, to whole rows of plain stockinette, so the bottom is much wider with the same number of stitches) - it was a modified drop shoulder pullover from the shoulder pad days and it's been sitting on the shelf for quite a while - I have taken it out occasionally, put it on and turned this way and that, you know how you do, hoping to see something that isn't there, take it off and sigh...Without shoulder pads, it is too long and sloppy looking but the lace border, love it and the yarn - it's that beautiful mercerized cotton from Yeoman Yarns, Cannelé and the colour is that sharp, stunning bright white...there must be some way to repurpose this garment...
I started by washing the garment (again) to make sure it was really clean (it was or is now!). My plan is to unravel it so far and change it into a raglan and cut and sew the front to make it a cardigan. Now, I know you’re thinking, say what? But right now it’s useless to me – I can give it away, but who else is going to wear it and appreciate it? Face it, it’s out of style, so, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I began undoing it, from the neck, of course. Took off the neckline, undid the shoulders, separated the sleeves from the body and looked at it all. I’m going to shorten it by at least 10 cm in the body, from the underarm down, so I should have plenty of yarn to reknit the raglans. Starting with the back, I unraveled it to the underarm and then removed another 4 inches, a plain stockinette part, rehung the stitches – I knew how many from my original pattern notes and I knew the stitch dial size I used. The yarn is all crinkly because it takes the shape of the knit, especially after that length of time, etc – nothing you can do about it. Just reknit and hopefully, relaundering the final thing will take the kinks out. Now, remember the yarn, it’s a very good quality mercerized cotton, not just some junky acrylic.
Back finished as a raglan. I do admit, didn’t even totally undo the side seams – they were so nicely done and all matched up, there was no reason to undo the bottom. On the front, I unraveled it to the same spot as the back, rehung the row and then took each side off on separate waste yarn. Carefully sewed and cut the front apart (see ‘reno for spots in dots’ June 30, 2010) – I am going to end up taking about an inch out of the centre front, but the bands will make up for it later, no worries.
Rehung the front, knit the raglan – I didn’t worry about repeating the patterning on the Back or Fronts because the next repeat up would have been in the centre and it wasn’t worth dealing with. On the sleeves, they were quite wide and I took them back further down to allow narrowing the sleeve so I did reknit the lace pattern on the sleeves, shifting the motifs above the underarm to match the new shape of the sleeve. Put it all back together, made a new neckband as per the original ‘Rich Raglan’ pattern, made the front bands per the reno blogpost, darned in all ends, washed and dried it, gave ‘er a good press and I’m loving it!!! Oh yeah, and found some cute, white shank buttons to finish it off with! So, while not exactly perfect – on close inspection, you can see a bit of a line on the fronts where I began reknitting, but it isn’t really noticeable when it’s on and I have a ‘new’ wearable, raglan cardi with this kick-ass lace pattern!