Wicked Improved

One of my first real sweaters for myself was Wicked.  I bought some “real” yarn in a bright color and went to town.  When I was done, I was pleased enough, but the sweater never got worn.  The sleeves were a weird, just below the elbow length, the body was too short, and thus the sweater didn’t really fit for any particular season.

A few weeks ago, I was itching for an FO, but all of my sweater projects had hit the skids.  (I’ve hit several huge issues with J’s sweater, so that’s on hold, and I broke one of my Denise needles, so my Kerrera is still on hiatus.)  Then it hit me: I may as well fix my Wicked!

I set about this is in several steps.  First, I put the sleeves on holders at the stopping point for short sleeves per the pattern.  I then cut my knitting (yipe!) just above the edging so I wouldn’t have to reknit it, and unraveled to the short-sleeve point.  After I did this for both sleeves, which took a while since Malabrigo, though lovely, tends to felt even after three years of very little wear, I washed the yarn ramen and hung it to dry.  While it was drying, I followed the same steps for the sweater body, but this time I put everything on holders just above the side edges of the front pocket so I wouldn’t have to go through the reattaching part.  I then undid the stitching at the top of the pocket so it hung free, then cut everything again.  When the yarn from the sleeves was dry, I reattached them with some kitchener, then used the remaining yarn to knit about 2.5 extra inches on the body and kitchener it back together.  I then restitched the top of the pocket to the body, and I was done!

I’m really excited about the results.  Sure, right now you can kind of tell the new stitches from the old, but I have a feeling they’ll pill up again in no time.  I’ve already worn the sweater twice since I finished this process, which is probably more than it’s been worn since I finished it in the fall of ’07.  The whole process was far less scary than I thought it would be, and the most painstaking part was really just how long it took to kitchener the body of an entire sweater together.  However long you think it might take, double it.  Seriously.

The risk was totally worth the reward, though, and now I’ve got a “new” sweater in my arsenal!