A man looks to the side, wearing a pea-green sweater that is seamed and has a slim fit

The same green sweater has an added brown button band with slight shawl collar. The band is very wide with a single row of buttons.

A side view of the shoulder highlights the brown cabled strip inserted into the sleeve.

A man wears a knitted slouch cap and green sweater with brown inserts at the collar and down the outer edge of the sleeve

For #ShowMeYourKnits sweater week, here's one I made years ago when I was exploring fitted sweater construction. When it no longer fit so well, I sliced it open down the front and down the sleeves, adding contrasting bands.
#SweaterKnitting #MenWhoKnit #SweaterSurgery

A man wears a grey cabled sweater and a colorful zigzag scarf. The plain ribbing hangs relaxed at the bottom of the sweater without flaring. He is standing outside, with a blurred background of trees and snow a nd grey sky.

Profile view of a man wearing a grey cabled sweater and a colorful zigzag scarf. The plain ribbing hangs relaxed at the bottom of the sweater without flaring. He is standing outside, with a blurred background of trees and snow and grey sky.

My revised Na Craga pullover sans flare and sag.

It worked, and I am very pleased. I ended up decreasing about 20 percent for the ribbing and utilizing a classic 2x2 rib for maximum elasticity.

#SweaterSurgery #MenWhoKnit #queerknitters #AranSweater #SweaterWeather #CableKnitting

A grey cabled sweater turned inside out rests on a drying rack. A simple ribbed band pulls in slightly from the width of the sweater.

Reknitting the bottom of the grey sweater with true ribbing, reusing the yarn from the hip band that was removed. The old sweater strip has been rolled up into a rosette and bound with scrap yarn to help it stay manageable for unravelling.

The surgically removed bottom of the sweater. Notice how the fancy cabled bottom lays flat with the heavily cabled fabric above, despite being worked on needles two sizes smaller and with fewer stitches. The faux-rib does not pull in at all.

Update on the Na Craga #SweaterSurgery
After a couple false starts, I decreased almost 20 percent and worked a classic 2x2 rib from the reclaimed yarn on smaller needles (the same as before, it turns out). I'm still waiting for this sucker to dry after wet blocking. This has to be an improvement.

#SweaterSurgery reveals the shadow side of #SweaterWeather

#MenWhoKnit #CableKnitting

A photo of the puffin sweater laid flat on a table with a circular needle through a line of stitches at the waist.

A photo of the puffin sweater laid flat on a table. The sweater is separated into two pieces at the waist. The top half has a circular needle through the live stitches. A flashlight and a box of girl scout cookies are on the table next to the sweater.

The fix was to cut it open at the waist and reknit the lower body from the top down, this time using smaller needles and fewer stitches. Because it's in stockinette, changing the knitting direction works well here.

#knitting 🧶 #SweaterSurgery

A photo of me wearing the puffin sweater viewed from the back with my hands on my waist. You can see folds of fabric gathered at the small of my back where the sweater is too big. It’s a sunny day and my hair is longer.

A photo of me wearing the fixed puffin sweater shown from the back. The excess fabric at the lower half of the body is gone and I don’t have to have my hands on my waist to make the fit look better. It’s a gray day and my hair is shorter.

The bigger issue was that I had made the bottom half of the body too large (due to a magic loop gauge swatch and some poor decisions). You can see here the extra fabric in the first version (photo 1) compared to the slim fit in the final, fixed version (photo 2).

#knitting 🧶 #SweaterSurgery

A closeup photo of the sleeve of the black sweater from my previous post. I’m holding scissors about to cut a single stitch from the middle of the sleeve at the location of some locking stitch markers.

A bathroom mirror selfie of me wearing the black sweater in pieces. The edges of the detached sleeve are dangling circular needles and the cuff of the sleeve is at the right length.

A closeup photo of me grafting the sleeve of the black sweater closed.

There were a couple of different #knittingfail moments in this bottom-up sweater, but of course knitting can always be fixed. First, I made the sleeves too short, so I immediately cut the sleeves open, knitted a couple more inches, and then grafted them back together.

#knitting 🧶 #SweaterSurgery