Friday, June 20, 2008

Another Lesson in Knitting Repair


Blocked Raglan Cardigan
Originally uploaded by sunasak
First, here is one more photo of that cardigan I finished. This is its blocked look, so you can see the little collar that showed up when I improvised a bit. Blocking the Cotton Bam Boo yarn went really well. I steam pressed it. The stitches evened out well, and it got just slightly bigger, so it fits very well. Other people's versions on Ravelry are bigger, but I think this one is nice.

It's good to have some successes, since I really messed up last night. I had knit 6-7 rows on the shawl yesterday. The going is slower now that I am finished with the diamonds and on to the edging, which is where more and more beads show up. I was admiring its shininess when I noticed that I put two beads in the wrong spot a few rows down. One was in the center of a motif, so I was able to put one in the right place easily, but the other was in a section with a lot of YO and decreases, which are hard to reach down and undo. I thought, well, I'll just make the extraneous bead go away. I had read that you can use needle-nose pliers to crush "bad" beads on a string, so I figured I could just crush the one in the wrong spot. I enlisted poor Lee's help, and when the thing finally crushed, it also broke the yarn. 5 rows down. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

It wasn't Lee's fault--I'd asked him for help. But, let me tell you, undoing 5 bead-filled rows was not a joy at all. Beads were everywhere. But, after close to an hour of work, I had gotten the stitches back onto the needles, spit spliced the yarn, and successfully knitted a non-bead row. It will be OK. WHEW. I will get to knit those fun rows again, which is fine. I am enjoying the shawl a lot.

The key to successfully fixing the shawl was to stop pulling stitches out the row before the yarn break, so that I could carefully un-knit a stitch at a time on that row. That way I didn't lose any delicate stitches above yarn overs and such. It made getting started again a lot easier.

Tonight is a mystery knit night at the local yarn shop, so I will see what funny project Pat has in store for us. I really shouldn't spend money on stuff like this, but I need to keep my spirits up, and being around people really helps, especially my nice knitting friends.

1 comment:

  1. Suna!! It was great meeting everyone and I am planning on trying to make it to Chicks with Sticks sometime soon. Thanks for your help last night, I am really pleased with the way it turned out. I have to admit that the guitar factory tour was very interesting, but that's probably because I'm a musician also (violin & voice) so I can appreciate his weird interests. Plus he let me come last night, so how can I complain?
    See you soon!
    Caps

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