Adventures in Steeking, or When Knitting Attacks

I have been knitting a sweater in the round. You know how patterns say “Join to work in the round, being careful not to twist stitches”?

So of course I double and triple-checked that my stitches were not twisted. And I checked again after a couple of rows.

How then, can it be possible, that they ended up twisted?

What I like to do with sweaters in the round, is slip them onto 2 circs, just as you do for knitting socks on 2 circs. That way you can spread out the stitches, check your gauge, and even try it on. After about 4 inches of knitting, I did just that. To my horror I found out that the sweater I have been knitting is twisted! Aarrgghh!

I don’t want to start over, I’m just lazy that way.
Rather than rip it out, I decided to try steeking it and then grafting or mattress stitching the untwisted ends together.
I could have tried a new design feature like side vents, as suggested by my friend Bronwyn. Genius idea. This is a design for a magazine though, so it sort of has to match the specs.

Worst case, it doesn’t look right and I have to start over -- which is what I would have done anyway - had I not been inspired by Bronwyn’s steeking a sweater that had gotten twisted. So no huge risk, anyway.

So I reinforced it before cutting, held my breath and cut it The I untwisted it and sewed it with mattress stitch, and I sort of tacked down the cut edges on the inside of the sweater.

It looks fine on the front side, but it’s a little extra bulky on the inside from the seam edges. It’s only around 4 inches though. Should be better after blocking.

see the pics here:

Right side:Inside:

Whew!

Next time I will follow some advice I read, to work 2 or 3 rows flat, until you can see your work better; then join in the round. Then you just have a tiny bit to sew up.