the mighty momogus

First of all, let me apologize to all my fellow Phillies fans. This:

is the reason the Phillies lost yesterday. I had this magnet in the trunk of my car, where I had tossed it at some point this season when I was juggling things [car magnets, caps, flags, neighbor's car, etc] to improve the Phillies' mojo. I thought I would show my support for the team by putting it on my car on Monday and then take it off on Wednesday before the game because I didn't want to mess with the mojo. But of course I forgot to take it off. And they lost. I have removed it, and if they lose today it is on their heads, not mine. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Remember Gus's Hoody Vest that I thought was too short? Well, I decided that I definitely wanted to make it longer.

For those of you out there that are unaware of this technique - read on! This hoody was knit from the bottom up, so in order to make it longer, I need to cut it, unravel to a clean (stockinette) row, put the stitches back on a needle and then do the ribbing back down again. Unlike top-down garments, you can't undo the bottom edge and keep going. For one thing, it is incredibly fussy and time-consuming to undo a cast-on edge, and for another thing there is a definite demarcation line because your stitches are going in the other direction. So if you unravel, as I did, it's advisable to start ribbing or a different stitch pattern from the stockinette of the body so your eye will be fooled. So here's what I did.

I cut the ribbing as close to the cast-on edge as I could.

You want to cut well below where you want to begin again, because it takes a couple of rows to get a completely clean, without-cut-bits, row.

I unraveled back to the stockinette (note pile of cut-up bits):


I put the stitches back on a needle (note gin and tonic at hand to fortify nerves if necessary):


I worked 2" of ribbing (which added an inch to the length, which was what I wanted) and bound off again.

Though it seems crazy and scary and nerve-wracking to cut your knitting like this, it's actually fun and not hard once you know what you have to do. It works for too-short sleeves too. Plus you feel like a certified Brilliant Super-Genius!