I’ve read that if you have a sweater that is too loose across the shoulder seam (or what would be the shoulder seam if you made a seamless sweater) you can tighten things up by running some crocheted chain stitch across it.
This afternoon I woke up from naptime a bit chilly. I looked into my closet for something warm to throw on until my coffee woke me up, and was surprised to find this tan mohair. I thought I gave it away years ago.
The bottom button is broken (I was a button snob, only real shell for me) it went through the wash and felted a bit, the sleeves are too long, the neck is too loose and there is a big ink stain on the side. If I was looking for an experiment volunteer, this is it!
I think one of the reasons it’s so short is that I ran out of yarn. So there was none matching left in the stash, but several coordinating options. I picked the tan cashmirino.
I was a bit encouraged to see that I had seamed the shoulders, actually I’d kitchenered them over a cast off edge – and they still streached out too far once the sleeves were sewn on.
I ran the line of chain stitches (yarn held inside the sweater, it was a bit fiddlely) from one shoulder, around the back of the neck, to the other shoulder. The back neck ruffles a bit now, so if this were a serious sweater rescue, I would tear back and work it more loosely. The only crochet hook I could find was a a bit too small – I didn’t want to get loud in the living room because K has a cold today and she’s asleep across the hall.
The sleeves are not hanging into my hands anymore, and the sweater has stayed on without my jerking on the neckline as I typed this, so I’d say this techinique works just fine!