Sweater Surgery

The other thing that I have been working on for The Shepherd is downsizing a vest that I knit for him a couple (few?) years ago. When I first considered the alteration, it seemed pretty straightforward. But of course, the devil is in the details. 😉

And when it comes to cutting into knitting, you want to be pretty sure you’ve got a good plan.

So this vest sat quite a while, as I knit the new one, and considered the best way to approach the resizing.

When it came time to get down to business, I started by pinning it to the desired dimensions, to see how much fabric I’d be taking in.

Once I had a good idea about how much I’d be taking it in, I removed the ribbed hem and armhole trim.

After this I decided to mattress stitch the new seam right away, Which I immediately realized was a mistake, because I found it kind of awkward trying reinforce for the edges from the reverse side of the fabric. So i pulled out that stitching, but no harm, no foul, because no cutting had happened yet 🙂

After refreshing my memory on streek reinforcing techniques, I decided to go for a row of single crochet, which would also give me a clear definition for where the new seam would be stitched and an even selvage on the inside. Should have taken a picture at that stage, but I was kind of in the thick of things and didn’t think of that (sorry). But after reinforcing what would be the new edges, here are the bits I cut out

The seaming went much more smoothly the second time, since I had a clear guide in the from the line of crochet.

Now I’m reknitting the ribbed hem. Once redo the armhole trim I think I’ll go back and whip stitch the inside edges of the seam down with thread, so they lay nice and flat.

So, a little ways to go yet, but I’m pretty sure that the patient is going to make it, and continue to keep The Shepherd warm for a good long time yet. And I learned a few things along the way as well, which is cool.