Grafting Garter stitch

 Two winters ago I knit my Garter stitch Circular sweater, and I loved the yarns, the fabric and the colors of the sweater. It was made from various rayon chenilles, ribbon yarns and other cotton or rayon yarns that I had collected over many years. There were a whole lot of ends to weave in, of course, and it took a long time to knit, but I loved the resulting sweater. I wore it once, and realized it was too long in the back for my short self. So, on to the next project. Yesterday I unpacked  a box and there it was. Because of the non-wool nature of the yarns, it had stretched and so my lovely sweater was making me unhappy.

 

If I were
6 ft tall, it might be lovely, but alas, I am 5 ft 1. So I decided to rip out the body and re-knit it with a shorter back section. I still had a box of yarn left from that project, so I first knit a shorter back section, 10 inches instead of 15 inches, and then started ripping out the circular portion which went surprisingly easily, after I picked out the bind-off which was in fluffy chenille.

 

I decided to keep the sleeves, as they were the right length. The whole sweater body ended up in 3 neat balls.I had to figure out how to graft  1/2 of the sleeve stitches to the back so I could  continue with the shrug construction. I put the sleeves on circular needles and managed to successfully graft them to the back:

 

I found my formula for

Grafting in Garter stitch:

Front: K off, P leave

Back: K off,P leave.

It was easy and went very smoothly! Now I am ready to knit the circular portion, and marked 7 sections around the circumference where I will be increasing every other row.Because this is circular garter stitch, I only need 7 increases every other row, so I increase on the knit rows and work plain on the purl rows. I probably will need to cut the yarns to make it line up, but having would them in sequence it should go easily.

If I had stitched it in Seed stitch, the grafting would be:

Front:opposite off, same leave ( as you see the stitch)

Back:opposite off, same leave

If ribbing:

Front: same off, opposite leave

Back: same off, opposite leave.

For the sake of completeness:

Stockinette stitch grafting is 

Front: Knit off, purl leave

Back:Purl off, knit leave.

In a month, I should have a new sweater! The new moon is a good time to begin a new project, don't you think?