A long time ago, a large and curvy lady started knitting a kauni cardigan. It went reasonably well, but she got bored when she came to the sleeves, and it had turned out a little large (because the lady had completely ignored the instructions and made up her own numbers) so it went in a box and stayed there for months and months.
Having lost a lot of weight lately, the less large and curvy lady took out the half-finished kauni cardigan from the box and tried it on. It was laughably big now. She considered unravelling it for the wool, but remembered that the wool is very hairy and sticky and does not unravel very well, and also that this cardi was knitted in the round and steeked, so all the wool would be in very short lengths. The less large lady thought about throwing it away, but couldn't bear to give up on this much knitting. So she decided that she had nothing to lose and would be brave. Very brave.
So she cut off the neckband, and front bands, and bottom band (which she had originally done in garter stitch and didn't like) and then took a deep breath and cut the cardigan in half up the middle of the back. (Note for those new to steeks - yes it is as scary as it seems. And she couldn't even have a stiff drink first, as she isn't drinking at the moment). She cut out about 6 inches from the back of the cardi, and three inches off the fronts each side. This cardi needed to be made a LOT smaller. She very very carefully sewed up the back seam, having picked up and cast off the sections that would be in the seam. 
Pretty neat, though I do say so myself (oops, I switched into the first person! Oh, well. You knew it was me). That hasn't been blocked or ironed or anything, you know! I decided that the kauni is hectic enough without multicolour ribbing, so I stuck with plain 1x1 rib. Drives me mad to knit, but it looks good.
And the seam from the inside...
... and then, since my alterations had unfortunately removed the entire neckline, I had to find or create a new one. I picked this fairly deep scooped shape, and attepted to make it work Trouble is, it's very hard to tell how a cardi will sit around your neck when all you've got is a slit, and I didn't want to cut it till the neck was done! Even I'm not that brave.
Fortunately, it seems to have worked... I'm hoping that it'll lie flatter after a good blocking, but if not then I'll just thread some elastic through the edge to make it behave.
Closeup of neck band... I love the way the colours change, even without the pattern. I may have to get more yarn and knit a plain stockinette jumper, just because I love a rainbow. We'll see. Next thing is the front bands, and I picked one up this morning, but it's not done yet.
What do you think? Am I totally mad? I had to try and save it, right?
What do you think? Buttons?
Or toggles? I've started the second front band, but I'll need to know which I'm going to use before I get to halfway, so I know what size to make the buttonholes! Decisions, decisions...
This is progress to date: one button band finished, one to go, plus two sleeves still to be knitted! Bizarrely, even though the sleeves will take me forever, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting close. Perhaps it's because thanks to the bands it's starting to look like a cardigan again instead of a large amorphous heap of knitting that some lunatic had attacked with the scissors. i still have no idea if it will work, and there are definitely going to be issues with the neckline, where I've picked up the stitches and now have to convert raw edges into facings... but I'll cross that bridge later. For now, I'm feeling good about the kauni rescue attempt. And now I really must get some sleep. Night night.
And the seam from the inside...
... and then, since my alterations had unfortunately removed the entire neckline, I had to find or create a new one. I picked this fairly deep scooped shape, and attepted to make it work Trouble is, it's very hard to tell how a cardi will sit around your neck when all you've got is a slit, and I didn't want to cut it till the neck was done! Even I'm not that brave.
What's happening here? Steeking, at a whole new level. More later, I've got to go and give my Mum a masterclass on intarsia. I wouldn't have said I was an expert, but I suppose I did manage this.
