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Lengthening and Shortcning Picccs

1 First open the scams as far as needed. To lengthen a piece, puli the selvedge stitch out a little—2 to 3 rows above tho rib-bing. To shorten a piece, puli il out at the point you wish to shorten the piece to and cut it open.

Puli on one end of the cut yarn and carefully gather the piece to the end of the row. At the end of the row, watch to see which stitch is being pulled. Put a knitting needle into this stitch and puli the gathering yarn out a little (to sew it in later). Thon cut the yarn.

3Now puli the yarn out all the way. This way, 1 row of knitting is neatly undone. The open stitches of the top and bottom pieces will be in front of you in a straight row. (If the yarn is very fine or tears easily, you will have to undo tho yarn 1 stitch at a time.)

you havc to be .i little carchi 1 at tho oJjjes: W hen you sew the seams, pay actcntkm to tho lino of stitches. At one edge, the seam now has to go nlong tho sekedge stitch. At tho other side, it has to go withln the hrst stitch ufier the sekedge stitch. You > ho u Id work a seam selvcdgc edge. hecnuse this is tho only way you will be able to sew tho seam within the sekedge stitch.

To slwrten a piece, undo the bottom piece only up to the next-rola >t row above the ribbing. Tliat makes u easier to sew the ribhing back on using gralting stitch.

4 Put the open stitches onto a thinner knitting neodle. As you pick the stitches up. make surę that they are on the needle correctly. If there is not a long enough yarn end at the sides to be sewn away, you can undo a row as you pick up tho stitches and put the stitches onto the needle one at a time.

5 Now you can continue knitting on oithor the top or bottom piece. If you work on the top piece, the knitting will shift over half a stitch. You have to pay attention to that whon you sew the seams again (see text on lelt). After the piece has been lengthened. you can join the pieces again, using a grafting stitch.

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