knitting down…

After that outstanding success with Pebbles, I wanted to use Suva again and go with another neckline from NBT - more on that later, because I also figured I’d make it for manfriend - he hasn’t had a new sweater in some time so I went looking for one of his old ones to measure and figure out what to do. I came across one from 2012 - it was totally plain, (so plain, I never even told you about it) standard gauge stockinette, hems and all, in a really nice tweedy, burgundy/ivory Jagger Bros cotton/wool yarn that I totally recall thinking I should never have used for him - could have kept it for moi! He hasn’t worn it in forever and I wondered why. 

When he came by, turns out it’s a wee bit too short to wear comfortably. Not sure why. Was it always? did it shrink? what? who knows but, weirdly, I still had the remainder of the leftover yarn/cone, about 330g. Actually found my original schematic with stitch/row and tension details - what an incredible filing system - it was the only thing under miscellaneous! - and you know how I love a challenge. 

It was originally knit bottom to top, regular-like, beginning with a hung stockinette hem. I carefully unpicked the bottom of the side seams and to get rid of the hem, the easiest thing to do was pull the strand above the hem to take off the entire hem.  I know you’re kinda panicking and saying what the? But, knitting doesn’t unravel from the bottom - you have to work at it to lose a stitch. Rehung the stitches, easy enough, T8, knit 20 rows, transfer to 1X1 rib,  T7/7, (didn’t want the hem to pull in, just stay the same width and stop it from curling up)10 rows, ending carriage at right. Dialled up T10/10, knit a very loose row, transferred it all up and chain cast-off for a total of about 8 new  cm. Repeat for second piece, stitch the sides back up and Bob’s your uncle! 

You can’t even tell it wasn’t born that way!

Heh-heh, now he doesn’t need another new one!