Could you do something with sewn darts? Or, you could just reknit the portion where you want the waist shaping to go by snipping the yarn, detaching the top and then ripping back to the bottom of the waist, then grafting it all back together again.

I recently steeked a finished sweater down the back.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/milele/sienna-cardigan

I didn't add shaping, because it is supposed to be a little boxy, but it sure helped -- and I didn't need to take the sleeves out to do it.

I folded up the excess fabric and stitched the new seam from the front, picking up stitches exactly along a column. Then I cut the fold of excess fabric on the back, and firmly sewed down the flap on each side before trimming it back.

Good luck!

Not sure I agree with you about that girl... is she wearing a bra? Her left breast is just above her waist!

lovely! I love this orange color!!!

I have shaped sweaters after the fact by just sewing the side seams (by machine or hand) to the shape I wanted and then cutting off the excess fabric. Not the most elegant solution, but it works!

Totally what I was thinking, Suzanne. Glad to hear that someone's boldly gone there before me and succeeded!

I agree about the sleeves - they're ridiculous but I LOVE them! And boat necks - what's with them? I'm not sure they look good on anyone. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

ChrisinWI

I think the idea of just sewing darts (or seams) where you want shaping is the way to go. I might baste by hand first & try on before using a shortish machine stitch (zigzag maybe for the stretch?). And I have to agree about boat necked sweaters - they were extremely popular back when I started knitting about 45 years ago. It was actually hard to find a sweater that had any other kind of neckline. I don't understand the point of them. I mean, if it's cool enough for me to want to wear a sweater, I want something that will cover my shoulders (which seem to get cold faster than any other part of my body except maybe my feet). And for women there's the whole bra strap problem. Or am I the only one left who thinks that bra straps should support but not be sen in public (I know I see young women wearing tank tops with spaghetti straps & their bra straps obviously showing but I still think it looks like they're not wearing the righ kid of bra). But those sleeves - crazy cute - they kind of look like a flower bud about to open to me.

I think the idea of just sewing darts (or seams) where you want shaping is the way to go. I might baste by hand first & try on before using a shortish machine stitch (zigzag maybe for the stretch?). And I have to agree about boat necked sweaters - they were extremely popular back when I started knitting about 45 years ago. It was actually hard to find a sweater that had any other kind of neckline. I don't understand the point of them. I mean, if it's cool enough for me to want to wear a sweater, I want something that will cover my shoulders (which seem to get cold faster than any other part of my body except maybe my feet). And for women there's the whole bra strap problem. Or am I the only one left who thinks that bra straps should support but not be seen in public (I know I see young women wearing tank tops with spaghetti straps & their bra straps obviously showing but I still think it looks like they're not wearing the right kind of bra). But those sleeves - crazy cute - they kind of look like a flower bud about to open to me.

Sorry for the duplicate post - for the neckline couldn't you just undo the neckband & add a stripe or 2 continuing the decreases (or even speeding them up)? I have thought of doing that on a couple of sweater patterns that I like except for the wide neck opening.

I can't wait to see it on you.

For the neckline, could you seam together the two ends of the boatneck until they give you something closer to a crew neck? Obviously I haven't tried this, so I don't know if it would produce a decent result or not.

The very word "steek" gives me the fantods. And I agree about boatnecks. They're silly unless you're wearing pedalpushers and way too much eyeliner and pointing at things on an imaginary beach in a 60's catalog. I'm with Liz T. A little snip, a little rip and re-knit the shape you want. A lovingly made hand-knit should make you happy and the wrong neckline or waist is enough to spoil the whole thing.

i am so impressed! the colors you chose are great! good luck with the reshaping. i have never liked weaving in all those loose ends after changing colors.

I'm with Liz, the base fabric is stocking st, right? Only I wouldn't bother grafting. Snip where you want the waist shaping to start, pick up and reknit from there down.

I did that on a ski sweater (one of the ones with a crazy fair isle neckline) to add some shaping to a boxy design. It worked GREAT. Of course you have to bind off around the hem, but that's easier (for me) than grafting around at the end of the waist shaping.

As far as the boat neck, I think I'd frog back and put a proper crew neck on it.

Or here's an idea - On one of my 1960s era boatnecks, there were functional buttons and buttonholes to close the neckline up to approximate a crew. Would that work?