I wrote yesterday that I was going to go fix those dropped stitches, but I kept putting it off. I worked out two different ways of tackling the problem but kept doing neither. Finally, knowing I wanted it to be a one-day problem only, I sat down and made myself go for Door #2, Bob.
I put a point protector on one end of my long circular: there was absolutely no reason to risk having stitches fall off that end while repairing at this one. There was an unexpected sense of relief at that that made the whole job immediately feel much more do-able.
Then I took a second circular needle and slipped the stitches onto it, moving them over one-by-one across the row till I got to the problem area. Since the stitches remaining on the original needle were not so scrunched up now, and since I wasn’t risking losing any more with that point protector in place, I spread the work open so I could get a good look at the pattern repeat next over and rework the dropped area to match it. The whole thing took me maybe five minutes; I was surprised. Piece of cake.
Then I slipped the stitches back onto the original needle on that side, took the spare–it didn’t matter what size it was, as long as it wasn’t bigger than the original needle, I was only using it for holding, not knitting–and went to the other side of the row and repeated the process. But over there, I had a live stitch that did not end at a yarnover, so it turns out I’d totally lucked out; it could have run clear to the beginning, and it was a fairly slippery yarn. I’d put a snip of yarn to mark and hold it, hadn’t tied it, and it had fallen out and the stitch was running free.
Darwin missed that shawl.
And now it is repaired, re-cast-off, blocking, and done, just needing that final end woven in. When it is dry I will run it in going halfway across the bottom where it will be a length of yarn in storage for any future repairs, right there where it’ll be easy to find.
Hey, Mary–you want to go to Purlescence today? I hear you beat me that Monday to the new Casbah shipment by a few hours, and I happen to know you like this color.
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What a relief to get it fixed. It looks lovely, like the colour
Comment by Miss 376 07.26.08 @ 11:49 amI imagine a circular shawl would also double rather well as a super hero cape, don’t you?
Comment by Michelle 07.26.08 @ 2:00 pmOh, good for you, I would probably have ripped the whole thing in frustration thus making hours more work for myself. Next time this happens to me I’m going to remember your experience.
Comment by PrincessPea 07.26.08 @ 2:02 pmyou amaze me all the time – I would have ripped it back to the beginning and started all over just ask anyone in my knitting circle – I am the queen of rippage 😉
Comment by rho 07.26.08 @ 5:56 pmPhew! I’m glad that’s over, and all I had to do was keep reading…
Comment by Channon 07.27.08 @ 7:23 amHuzzah! Now you can celebrate the rest of the weekend. (Knitterspeak: cast on another project)
Comment by Barbara-Kay 07.27.08 @ 7:34 amCongratulations! Taking back lace is not easy, as I found out. I’m like PrincessPea above, I ripped the whole thing. I’ll post today about that, now that I know that even my lace mentor can make a seemingly silly mistake. Thanks for posting it.
Comment by Linda 07.27.08 @ 12:28 pmI’m so impressed you were able to fix it. The shawl is wonderful!
Comment by Allison 07.27.08 @ 5:59 pmDo you ever use a “life line” when knitting lace? I always say I will (like every 10th row) and I don’t. As a result, I just frogged my latest lace project down to nothing…sigh!
Comment by Joansie 07.28.08 @ 5:34 amThe shawl is very, very pretty. Youngest is here visiting and wants to know the name of the pattern & where she can get it & the story behind it &…sounds like it might be in your next book??
Comment by Toni Smoky-Mountains 07.28.08 @ 2:15 pmLeave a comment
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