The Solution, Part One: Deconstruction

I figured out that I could cut one row on the sleeve and unravel it all the way to the top on the front (F), and a few stitches into the back (B). The rows make a sharp right turn at the armpit--the rows are running vertical at the sleeve, but turn to run horizontal on the back. The cut/unravel line is in green. Then, since the front left panel would be disconnected from the left sleeve, I could roll the excess fabric from the back to the front (blue arrows). I'd end up with a gap between the sleeve and the front panel, so I'd have to pick up those stitches and knit to reconnect the sleeve with the front panel. Make sense? It sure seemed like it would work, so I tried it.



With a needle and yarn, I secured the stitches along both sides of the row I would cut.



Very carefully, I made sure I was cutting the correct piece of yarn, and started to unravel that row. If you do something like this, make sure to cut at the middle, so when you unravel (the yarn--ha!ha!), there's enough yarn at both ends to weave in later.



Unravelling. The top edge is tricky. I can never quite figure out which loop along the edge is the correct stitch for that row.



See? All I have to do is pick up the stitches for the sleeve and knit a patch to reconnect with the front panel. Then I'll have to weave along the bottom edge of the sleeve to the underarm, and then a bit along the front.