I’m knitting the sleeves for a child’s jumper and halfway up the 2nd sleeve, I’ve realised I missed a row after the rib before starting the stocking stitch. Consequently, where I’ve done the stripe of colour on the rib band, I have the purl bumps as it’s the wrong side. I can’t believe I’ve made this stupid error and not noticed. Has anyone any suggestions that means I wouldn’t have to start again as I’ve only a few days before I need to complete this, (& only can knit in the evenings) including all the sewing up etc. probably my only option is to redo it but I’d thought all you clever knitters out there may have some suggestions thank you in advance
Anything I can do about this without starting again!
Hello
It is possible to put in a life line on the stockinette in the row above the rib cuff,
then cut the rib section off,
then either
reknit the rib section from cuff up (the way you have knitted it before) and graft the live stitches of the cuff to the live stitches of the arm (which were out on a life line),
Or
Slip the stitches from the life line o to a needle and knit the cuff top down (danger here of the bindoff not matching the cast on of the other sleeve depending what cast on you used).
There are video tutorials for sweater surgery, cutting knitting, life line and grafting.
Sorry I don’t have time just now to find some video samples but I thought I’d just say “yes, there ARE options to save it”.
Depending how familiar,iar you are with the techniques though, it might be quicker to unravel it all and re knit from the start. Sometimes new skills take extra time and I see you are pushed for time on this.
For what it’s worth I actually really love how it looks with the bump colour pattern and even the two cuffs not matching - fabulous design feature which you won’t find in the shops. I love hand made things being individual. Embrace the difference!
Is this the first sleeve? You can plan to make the second one match and then there will be no mistake.
Thank you - I was wondering about whether I could undo the rib from the cast on and re knit….hadn’t thought about putting in the life line first tho, so thank you for that.
This is the 2nd time I have started this 2nd sleeve as I forgot to do the increase row after the ribbing and got halfway up again before I realised it wasn’t as wide as the first!
I’m going to try undoing the cuff and see if it works otherwise start again
This is what happens when you can only knit evenings when tired and after a full day looking after grandkids (& 1 eye on the tv)
Oh well - wish me luck - 3rd time lucky
Thanks for the suggestion
Thank you……but unfortunately this is the 2nd sleeve
Shouldn’t be knitting when I’m tired, but heyho….we all do it don’t we
Oh it’s a shame you’ve had to restart this sleeve twice already. It will be fab when finished though.
With regards to undoing from the cuff - knitting does not unravel from the cast on edge (bottom up) the way it does from the live stitches edge (top down). You can’t just undo the cast on and pull out all those rib rows, it doesn’t work.
What you would need to do is cut the yarn near the top of the rib (not right at the edge though as you need a long enough tail left kn to weave in later) and physically draw the yarn through each stitch to undo it. The rib fabric, still pretty much in one piece, will come apart from the arm fabric.
Once the rib is separated you can unravel this top down as per usual and save the yarn.
There will be no yarn ball attached to the life line stitches so leaves a good length tail and join in a new ball to knit the rib. (The unraveled yarn ball is going to be a little too short for 2 reasons, 1. You missed a row preciously so are a row short and 2. You will have used up some yarn in the detaching process to leave a tail attached to the sleeve. I suggest knitting with a new ball for the rib to make sure you have enough. The unraveled yarn can be kept for seaming up)
If you pick up the live stitches on the life line and knit top down for the rib you will be one stitch short as this is the nature of the knitted fabric so you would increase an extra stitch perhaps at one end (this is the increase/decrease row transition from stockinette to rib anyway so you need to check your stitch count to ensure the correct number for the rib section).
Good luck.
Could you work a row of duplicate stitch over the purl bumps in the correct colour? It would give one thicker row but would be quicker than redoing the cuff.
I can’t download the image so I’m not sure what it looks like.
I have always done 2 sleeves and my first jumper was 6 rows too long but they matched. I have done cardigans and jumpers with fitting sleeves.
I can’t see your pics and definitely feel cheated.
This is the tutorial that Creations is referring to. It works beautifully if you want to snip at or near the rib/stockinette join then knit down to the cuff. You could also reknit the cuff bottom up with a row or two of stockinette then graft the two sections together.
I used it several times for sweaters that needed lengthening or shortening. Try it on a swatch first just to be sure.
(Thanks for the nudge, OffJumpsJack!)
I would do exactly as you thought. Place your lifeline 1 or 2 rows above the rib. Remove the cuff. Cast on & reknit cuff. Then 1 knit row. Then Kitchener the cuff to the sleeve at the lifeline. I think the bottom caston would be harder to duplicate if you tried to knit from the lifeline down to the cuff. I have done this before when replacing extremely soiled cuffs & forearms on long sleeves… Usually the color does not match since the worn part is faded, but clever “juesjing” hides it. (Pushing up and poofing etc.) But the repair is perfect.
Welcome to the forum!
We’ve all been in this situation, always discouraging.
So the purl bumps are showing in the rib or is it a whole row of purl bumps? Does the first sleeve have the same mistake? Maybe a photo would help.
For myself, it would always irritate me that the two sleeves didn’t match. I’d unravel to the errant row and re-do it. Re-knitting something always seems to go faster than you think.