Shortening Sleeves

Several years ago I knitted my mother a cardigan.  It was before I realised that her arms are even shorter than mine and so I knitted the sleeve length suggested by the pattern.  Mother has struggled on with it – rolling up the sleeves – but she asked me if I could do anything with them.  If I had knitted them downwards or added a rib afterwards – it would have been easier.  I thought about trying to unravel them, but in the end I took the scissors to them and just cut the bottom off.  Because the cardigan was old and the pattern complicated – this was the simplest method and surprisingly the cut fabric did not ladder.

 When I cut the sleeves – I left enough “fabric” so that I could turn the ragged edge under and then picked up stitches on the fold-line to reknit the cuff.  I unravelled the yarn that I had cut off to use to knit the new cuff. 

I had to use 4 needles and knit in the round - which I am not keen on.  I like knitting to be relaxing and I find fiddling about with 4 needles – stressful.  Also in order to get garter stitch I had to purl one row and then knit one row and repeat these 2 rows until the shortened sleeve was long enough.

Mother is now wearing the cardigan again.