Surgery to Lengthen the Sweater – Pictorial Guide

I knit a yellow stripe across the front of my sweater 2 rows shorter than all the other stripes.  I didn’t notice it until all my ends were woven in and the piece was blocking on my mat.  Despite my efforts to embrace this skinny stripe, to envision it as a design feature, I cannot love the skinny stripe.  I don’t want to rip out all my knitting and undo all the weaved ends.  So, it’s time to get out my scissors and tiny circular needles to take care of this problem!  If you’ve got a short knitted piece, it’s easy to lengthen, especially if knitted in stockinette stitch.

First things first, pick up the right leg of each stitch across the center of the piece with a tiny needle.  The tiny needle makes getting into the stitch easier for me.

Next, cut the yarn of a stitch in the row immediately above the picked up row.  I do this to make it clear what stitches to pick up above.  As you pick at the cut yarn, you will notice loops from the row above.  Put those loops on another tiny needle as you pick the cut yarn out of the knitting.

As you start picking out the cut yarn, it becomes clear what row of loops to pick up.  Turn your knitting around so the top of the piece is closer to you to make it easier to pick up those loops.

Now pull out the yarn from the cut row in both directions until you have completely separated the top of your knitted piece from the bottom.

You should have the same number of stitches on both needles.  Now, grab a fresh yarn and knit the missing rows with a needle size that gets gauge.

Next, you just need to graft those two sides together.  You’ll need a long piece of yarn.  I generally cut a piece of yarn that is 5-6 times the width of the piece.

Now get to Kitchener stitching!

And voila!  You’ve got a stripe that fits in with the others!  A little bit of wet blocking and the grafting will look exactly like your other rows.