Sweater I damaged in a kind of way (2,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as it were
'in a kind of way' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'sweater i damaged' is the wordplay.
'damaged' is an anagram indicator.
'sweater'+'i'='sweateri'
'sweateri' anagrammed gives 'AS IT WERE'.
(Other definitions for as it were that I've seen before include "you may say" , "In sort of" , "So to speak" , "In a kind of way" , "you might say" .)