Sort of sweater I knitted (2,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as it were
'sort of' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sweater i knitted' is the wordplay.
'knitted' indicates an anagram (knit can mean to screw up or crease).
'sweater'+'i'='sweateri'
'sweateri' with letters rearranged gives 'AS IT WERE'.
(Other definitions for as it were that I've seen before include "Historically ungrammatical" , "you may say" , "Just like if really so" , "So to speak" , "In sort of" .)