Steeking

[Pumphreydidit]

Has anyone ever tried steeking ?
Someone very kindly knitted me a massive large cardigan in super chunky wool but the sleeves are four foot long each.

I was going to try steeking the last foot and a half off but have two questions -
Would it work on a vertical row? The cardi was knitted in two parts and the sleeves are knitted in rather than added on?

Will I need to retire to a darkened room with a bottle of gin for an hour before and after making the cut?

Right, I do steeking all the time for my Fair Isle cardigans and the sleeves are knitted in from the top. If this is the case with your cardigan, all you need to do is find the end of where the sleeve has been cast off, unravel the four feet is is too long and cast off again.
If the sleeves are knitted from the bottom up and sewn in at the top, you can still cut one stitch just above where you want the end of the sleeve to be and unpick until you have a row of stitches left. Count what you cut off (on the wrong side) so you cut off the same amount.
Don't just put the scissors into your knitting, when you cut your steek it is done very carefully on a marked stitch.
hth

Ok, they are only a foot and a half too long. Same applies.

Oh, thank you DutchOma!

I have carefully washed and blocked it (had to unpick all the seams and boy is it big).

The cardi did shrink a tiny bit but not as much as I hoped...

The back and front are knitted in one huge piece so any cutting would be vertical, otherwise it would have been straighforward to unravel from the cuff. I have remeasured and a full 18 inches will have to come off each sleeve.
Should I machine stitch several times then cut?

Were you nervous the first time you cut into your knitting? I feel very apprehensive.

You should not cut any more than one half stitch; after that you unpick round the sleeve until you have all the stitches on a pin, then you can cast off with a bit of the thread that's on the bit that has fallen off.
Don't even think about cutting through any more than one half stitch. Steeking is something a bit different to what you are thinking about in that you have special stitches that you cut through from top to bottom.
Even that is scary, but nowhere near as scary as what you think you are going to do. That will just not work, sorry.

Just been thinking some more about this: are they bat wing sleeves? In that case you could probably cut through, but I would carefully mark the stitch you are going to cut through with a coloured thread and cut a bit blow where you want your sleeve to be so that you can hem back.
I don't think machine stitching is going to help.
Sorry I misunderstood initially

Sorry, we had to go out for a while.

The garment is a wrap coat from the Rowan knitting magazine number 26 and yes I think the sleeves are a big batwing type.

I am going to try and full them back a bit using a felting board as the wool seems to be very willing to felt (it is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky).
If they shrink even a little then it may help.

I will probably be back in a little while in a state and have to lie down in a darkened room. I don't want to ruin it as it is magnificent and lots of work has gone into the making.

I would take a smooth contrast coloured thread, a bit thinner than the yarn the cardigan is made of, put it in a needle and go up and down with it on either side of where you want to cut, leaving a goodly hem. Then cut between the two threads and hem it back. Then pull the threads out

Best of luck. It would probably be easier to do this before you try to felt it, 18 inches is a lot to have to lose and it will probably be easier to see where the stitches are if it isn't felted.