Looking for a cheap thrill? Get knitting on that sweater of yours. Make sure you’ve ordered just enough yarn for your size. Make a couple changes, as you do, to accommodate your long torso. Hell, add a couple inches at least. And a wide garter band at the hem. Don’t forget those monkey arms of yours: you’ll want extra length there too.

Knit, knit, knit away. Yarn, after all, is a renewable resource. There’s always more growing somewhere. Knit picks will surely have a ball of gloss in your colour and dye lot should you need it. You’re a valued customer and your preferred colourways are always stocked. Yes, exactly. Knit on that lengthened sweater like your yarn basket is infinitely deep and generous. Feels free and oh so good, don’t it?

Well, it all came down to the wire. A frantic posting on ravelry; a call out to the knitting ether, to the hoarding types, those willing to rifle through SABLE (def. 2) and post a lonely ball to a desperate, (tall) and sweater-less comrade. I almost hit the paypal button for a very expensive solution to an amateur mistake.

But I didn’t. Instead, I ripped back my two gauge swatches. I weighed, measured, compared, tried on, furrowed my brow. I very nearly cannibalized the hem, but luckily found just enough yarn in the long ends waiting to be woven in.

I knit the crap out of that yarn. To the Very. Last. Inch.

In the immortal words of the Road Warriors: What a rush

• Pattern: Baby Cables and Big Ones too
• Size: 36
• Yarn: Gloss DK in Hawk
• Needles: 3.75mm for stockinette, 3.0mm for garter portions
• Modifications: Omitted most cables on yoke and all decorations on sleeves. Kept only the two cables on the front yoke. Too busy otherwise. On yeah, and I made it a bit longer.