Sweater Surgery

Recently, I finished a sweater, and I love it.  It is awesome and I have worn it at least 3 times since it has been off the needles thanks to the long, never-ending winter we are having in my part of the world.  (I love to wear my hand-knits as much as the next knitter, but enough already - Spring would be a nice change of pace).  

As I wore it, I noticed the neck seemed to be growing wider and wider.  It got to the point that it was slipping off both my shoulders.  It was not working for me.  The yarn I used, City Tweed HW, by KnitPicks is soft and warm and heavy.  I think the weight of the bottom part of the sweater was stretching the crewneck into a misshapen boat neck.

Here is a picture of it before it was stretched out too badly:

It already exposed both my shoulders and this is before it really stretched out.  One of the reasons I made this sweater is to keep my shoulders warm, so I endeavoured to fix it. 

First I set up a lifeline on the first row below the neck ribbing.  I say "I", but my awesome Husbeast was a big help here.  He is very useful knitting-wise for a non-knitter,  

Once the lifeline was set up, we (mostly Husbeast) found the cast-on edge and ripped out the neck ribbing down to the lifeline.  Then I put the live stitches on needles one size smaller than the ones I used the first time.

Then I reduced the stitch count evenly over one row.  I made the 'M2' size,  I reduced the neck stitches to the stitch count in the 'XS' size.  Then I re-knit the ribbing for the number of rows called for in the pattern and cast-off loosely. 

 Ta-Da!  A smaller, better fitting neck!

Here is a post-surgical pic of me wearing the sweater:

I am wearing a black tank top under the sweater in this pic.  Notice how you cannot see the straps? Success!  There is no point in knitting my own garments if they do not fit exactly the way I want them to.  

On a completely unrelated note, I can now tell people that I am the sock designer for the March 2015 Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks that Rock, Rockin' Sock Club!  Yay! The pattern is called Equinox Socks.   I cannot share photos of the design, because the publisher has exclusive rights for now, but I look forward to seeing the sock club's subscribers' project photos.