The v-neck pullover should have been finished long ago but I’ve been stuck trying to figure out what to do with the ribbing around the body and wrists.

Like the previous three sweaters, this one was started with a provisional cast-on with the assumption that I would later work the ribbing in the opposite direction and finished it with an invisible bind off. But unfortunately I wasn’t fully aware that when stitches are worked in the opposite direction they end up being  1/2 stitch off of the ones going in the other direction. If I forge ahead and working the ribbing as “planned” some of my knit and purl stitches will not line up with the ones on the rib. If I want the stitches to properly line up I’ll have to graft the ribbing to the body. What a daunting task!

Jean suggested making swatches out of a lighter yarn and practicing before attempting the feat.

So without much of an idea of what to do I made my swatches and fiddled around with them for a few days. Luckily Michale saw me struggling to come up with a solution and came to my rescue with her copy of Lucy Neatby’s DVD. Lucy has an interesting technique that makes grafting look easy. Basically she knits beyond the edge of the pieces with waste yarn and then holding the to-be-grafted rows together uses the stitches on the waste yarn as a guide to graft a new row of stitches. I’m going to adopt this technique but adjusted it a bit to suite my circumstance.

To start, I worked the 1×1 rib as usual minus one row. The last row was then worked in a light colored slippery yarn (white). The next two rows were worked in a third color (green) with the same pattern as the body before switching to stockinette stitch.

Now I’m all set to start grafting. The row of white stitches will serve as my guide. I’ll thread my darning needle with a piece of  purple yarn (used for the body and cuff) and then start stitching close to the white  thread, creating a new row of stitches as I go.  I’ll mimic the stitches as they enter and exit the green waste yarn and then ribbing.  Where ever the white yarn enter/exits a stitch in the green waste yarn, I’ll do the same with the stitches on the sleeve and likewise with the ribbing side. After all stitches have been grafted I’ll remove the white and green yarn.

Wish me luck. I’ll be sure to give an update on how it turns out.

Darn cat, I can’t seem to keep her off of the round neck cardigan while it dries.