Monday Mini Tip Tutorial - Sweater Surgery Part 1

Today's tutorial is a bit more than a mini tip so I've split it into two parts. Two years ago my Mum knitted my husband the Sochi Olympic sweater from Dale Garn. Simon really liked it but it was a tiny bit on the big side. Since then he's lost weight and the sweater is now far too big. As we're spending Christmas in Norway this year he wanted me to try to make the sweater smaller so it fits better and he can wear it on holiday.

The sweater is worked in the round with raglan yoke. There are no side seams. The sweater is too wide and too long so here's a list of what I have to do to make it smaller:

• shorten the length of the body by 6cm/2 1/4in
• possibly shorten the length of the sleeves - I ended up not having to do this
• take a total of 8cm/3in off the width of the body (4cm/1.5in on the front and 4cm/1.5in on the back)
• make the collar smaller

In today's tutorial, I'll share a video on how I shortened this sweater. Next week I'll show how I took 8cm off the circumference. I'll be using techniques I teach in my Steeking and Finishing classes (I'll be teaching these in 2017 - see my classes here).

The aim of this tutorial is to show I I use various techniques to alter the sweater. I'm not intending to do an in-depth tutorial of each technique. The sweater is worked in a navy blue yarn. It's been very dark and gloomy here in the last week and I don't have professional video lighting equipment, so the videos are a bit dark and I do apologise if you're struggling to see what I'm doing. I was struggling to see it too.

First, I measured how much I needed to shorten the body by. I then cut a stitch and used a knitting needle to slip all the live stitches on to. In the video below I show how I did this. Once all the stitches were safely on a needle, I unravelled the bit I'd cut off and re-knitted the rib. I left the stitches on two circular needles while I cut a section out of each side of the sweater. I then re-knitted the rib from the top down.

You can also watch the video here.

One thing to be aware of when unravelling a round/row is to keep an eye out on where you've woven in any loose ends. If you find you're unravelling or cutting an area where you've woven in ends, you will need to carefully undo this and re-weave them in later.

The rib after I'd re-knitted it.

I thought I would have to shorten the sleeves too but once I'd made the collar a bit smaller, the sleeves were fine. If I'd had to shorten the sleeves, I would have done it in the same way.

Next week I'll show you how I made the sweater narrower by cutting and seaming the sides. 

Please ask any questions you have in the comments below. You can see all the previous Monday Mini Tips and other tutorials on my Tutorials page. 

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