Horns of a Dilemma
Knitting / Posted on March 31st, 2009
I finished knitting my fair-isle yoke sweater and it has the potential of being my absolute most favorite sweater ever. There’s just one major problem, and, being as knocked up on cold medications as I am, I’m pretty sure I’m in no condition to make a rational decision about how to fix that problem.
The sleeves are two-and-a-half inches too long. That’s a lot. The sleeves don’t just graze my knuckles, they completely blanket them.
As I see it, I have two options.
Option A
Rip out the yoke. Rip out 2.5 inches of each sleeve. Re-knit.
Option B
Cut off sleeves. Rip out 2.5 inches. Graft back together.
In theory, Option B would be a lot less work. I’m worried that my grafting skills are not up to par, and if I frak up the grafting, I’ll need to revert to Option A anyway and have to reknit part of the sleeves. Yuk.
I’m also a little bit disatisfied with how rumpley the lower part of the yoke is. My stranding improved significantly towards the top part of the yoke. If I re-knit it, perhaps the yoke would be more consistent and smooth???
And what will blocking do to the yoke? Will it fix the rumpleyness with which I’m unhappy?
Argh. I’m going back to bed and will deal with this when I’m feeling better. In the meantime, if anyone has suggestions, lay them on me 
Posted by 
March 31st, 2009 at 11:25 am
First and foremost, I think it looks *lovely*. Your colors are great and it really is nice stranding work. You are always going to get some “rumples”, so that is just natural. Blocking truly does stretch it out and decreases the “rumple factor”.
As for the sleeves, I really do not see any reason for you to go through all of this hardship. Option A sounds doable to me – much moreso than B. Honestly though, if I were you, I would just cut off the inches and hem them up, not worrying about the ribbing, etc. You could press the hem down and it should look just fine.
Good luck
March 31st, 2009 at 1:50 pm
It’s beautiful. What a conundrum re: the sleeves.
I had a bit of a surprise when I read the words “Knocked up…. on cold meds!”
Hope you feel better sweets.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I recently had a similar dilemma. After much thought I went with Option A. It was difficult to undo hours and hours of work…but in the end it was worth it, because it turned out much better the second time around, and I knew that it was done correctly. Sorry, that probably isn’t the answer you were hoping for! Either way you chose the colors are fantastic, and it is a beautiful sweater…hope you feel better!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
i think the sweater looks amazing amy–rumpling or not! i wish i had some advice to offer on the sleeves, but i’m still working on my first-ever sweater. but how do the sleeves look scrunched up a bit on your arms? is it too bad? and what are the chances of the sleeves shrinking up a bit when you block it?
hmmm…i’m not much help, am i??!!
March 31st, 2009 at 7:02 pm
What about just cutting the sleeves above the cuffs and reknitting the ribbing in the other direction?
April 1st, 2009 at 4:50 am
I’m with Jessica. Pick up stitches at the level where you’d wish the ribbing started, cut off the sleeves at that point, and then just reknit the ribbing downwards. Totally doable.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am
I agree with cutting the cuffs and knitting down. Feel better soon!
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
The “knocked up” bit had me raising an eyebrow too (til I read the next bit).
I’ll chime in with the rest – knit the cuffs down from where you want the ribbing to start. I think this sweater is adorable and admire anyone who can do colourwork. It drives me mad.
Guess we’d all feel better if it stopped snowing on our coast? I hope you get over your cold sooner rather than later, Amy!
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
The sweater is beautiful and you’ve just given me an idea what to do with the Cascade 220 I just bought from Webs
I’m going to agree with the others that there is a third option, and very EZ’esque too. Pick up the stitches where you want the ribbing to begin for the cuff and cut off the rest, knit down.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:20 am
I see others have suggested cutting the cuffs off and knitting it in reverse. I did that with a sweater and it’s not even noticeable. Except that I always point it out so everyone can see…
Love the yoke, its beautiful.