Daily Archives: November 17, 2010

Lazy Knitting: One Sweater, Two Years

Back in September, I dug out Ellie’s little cardigan from last year. It fit everywhere but the sleeves and hem. So I fixed them.

on the pier

Chunky cuffs on the pier in October. Dish Rag Tag causes delayed posts.

I cut off the bottom band one row beneath where the body of the sweater started. Then I picked up all the live stitches along the body with a circular needle, unraveling the remaining band row as I went.

picking up

I picked up right across the side seams.

Now here’s the kind of hacky part. I couldn’t find my leftover yarn for that sweater. Anywhere. Happily, my own Doppelganger Cardigan was made in the same yarn and shade – but with worsted not sport. Not a problem. On the first row of the new band, I just decreased every three stitches to keep it all nice and even. Two inches of garter stitch made a new, longer band. Then I bound off and closed up any holes in the side seams.

I lengthened the cuffs the same way – except with double pointed needles instead of a circular.

dpns

I like to read while knitting.

The tricky bit with the cuffs is that a standard bind off is not at all stretchy. Not a problem for the band of a cardigan, but a biggish problem if you’d like to pull a cuff over a growing child’s hand. I needed the thing finished for that October beach trip, so I just used the standard bind off. But I am going back to try this stretchier finish instead.

And that is how Lazy Emily gets two years out of one project. There’s a lot of work in a sweater, you know.

now it fits

The cuff can be unrolled for more length!