I really meant to post about fixing my little lace project on Tuesday, the day after my little mishap report. The problem was in fact fixed on Tuesday morning, and took only about ten minutes to get back on track, but the blogging took a little longer because I’ve been busy and exhausted with life stuff. Nothing special or really wrong – just the everyday emotional exhaustion of parenting. I don’t know how the bloggers who blog every day without whining every day manage to do it.
But whee! Look what came in the mail yesterday! It’s the fabulous Sock Yarn C from the blankie wrap-up. Into the stash it goes for marination and aging. Oh, and one of the things I have been doing this last week is loading up my sock yarn stash into Ravelry. It’s not that much in real life, I swear!
But back to dealing with my little lace problem. The thing is, I picked this project back up last week after having shoved it in a project bag many months ago, and letting it sit there while I worked on many other things. There was no real reason for the sad neglect – none related to this specific project anyway. It was just more complicated than my life at the moment tended to require, and also I was taken over by the blankie obsession.
I actually love this project, and when I picked it back up I was all gung-ho to get back into it – so gung-ho, in fact, that I semi-ignored a little existing problem – the needles had gotten tangled into the fabric and pulled a few threads out of whack so it was really hard to tell whether there was an actual problem or whether the snag just made it look like one.
Can you even spot it? It’s 2/3 of the way to the bottom and over on the right.
I chose to assume that it wasn’t a real problem, but one that I could fix with blocking later. But like all little flaws in our knitting, we sit there and stare at it as we knit, and we come to regret ignoring them. So after knitting for a couple of days, and picking at my little pulled thread, I had gotten a little nervous about ignoring it. So when a real frogging situation came up late Monday night, it was a good reason to go ahead and rip-it rip-it a few more times.
Yeah, I was watching Saving Face, which is partly in English, but about half or so was subtitled Chinese. It was an okay movie. A couple people asked me about it – I suck at reviewing media-type things. If you’re interested in how cultures blend, especially generationally, you might like it okay. Plus I was tired and to be honest knitting lace generally is a game of X steps forward, Y steps back. The X and Y variables depending on how complicated the lace is and how much attention I’m able to give it at the moment. This lace is just about some of the most complicated I’ve done so far.
I probably coulda figured this one out eventually, dropped some stitches down and fiddled them back up the right way, but I knew it would a) be quicker and easier to just rip back a couple rows and reknit them and b) give me an excuse to go ahead and rip back the problem I should have fixed earlier in the week.
Because really – if I’m going to bother knitting something this complicated, do I want to look at it when it’s finished and hate myself for leaving a big ole glaring error in there for 80% of the project? No! So here’s pre-frogging. There’s a needle in the live stitches, and the other needle a bit lower shows the point at which the older error lay.
I have a few personal rules when it comes to frogging my knitting.
1) Back away from the knitting. The moment you decide that you are going to have to rip back to fix a problem, you must evaluate your state of mind. Are you a bit upset? Are you tired? Are you distracted? Is it pushing past your bedtime? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then put the knitting down and back slowly away. Even if you’re feeling fine and have plenty of time, even if you’re feeling absolutely certain that you know what you’re doing – it’s still a good idea to put it down and go take a break before doing anything irrevocable.
Because the worst thing that can happen is that you rip something out unnecessarily or prematurely. There is nothing worse than ripping something out right before you go to bed, and then waking up in the morning wondering whether you could have fixed it all by just doing XYZ. I speak from experience. In this case, I followed my rule to a T and went to bed.
Rule number two is to do the ripping when there are no pets or small children present. For kind of obvious reasons, right? Well, Tuesday morning the light was good, I had an extra few minutes, and one of the kids was at pre-school. The other kid was busy playing happily with some stuff when I started, so I figured what the heck. And then the cat showed up. But this picture was taken once the stitches were all happily back on the needle, so maybe that rule is meant to be bent.
Maybe that’s all the rules I have. Although I do have several other suggestions.
Don’t forget to breathe. Just stay calm and don’t make any herk-y jerky movements.
Work in a place with good lighting and on a surface that has a light background or at least a strong contrast to your project. I used an old white towel that I keep around for blocking things on and it was great – the terry cloth even served to hold the knitting in place a bit while I ripped back.
Rip back to a row before the last one you want to lose, and start sticking your needle into the stitches on the first keeper row as you pull out the last loser row – that way if some of the stitches start to escape and ravel down, you’ll lose one that you were going to rip out anyway first.
Also – that needle that you’re sticking back into the live stitches? Make it one at least a couple sizes smaller than the one you’re using for your project. I keep a bunch of size 0 needles with long wires around the house, and they’re not just for magic loop! Smaller needles are a lot easier to slide into those little loops without stretching out their neighbors.
Oh, and for lace? Most lace knitting has some rows that are more complicated than others. In this case, there are some rows that are knit straight across. Even if it means sacrificing a row or two – go ahead and rip back so you’re picking up stitches on one of those simpler rows – not having to deal with the YOs and the decreases is totally worth it!
Then you just have to figure out where to put your sticky notes back on the chart, and everything is fine. In this case it took all of 15 minutes. Just like ripping a band-aid off a scab. Do it quick and it hurts less.
Oh, hai, look! It’s me wearing my new purple scarf!
Oh look! Obligatory cute-kid pics!
It’s a fairy party!
As of this afternoon – right back where I started on Tuesday morning, plus a few more rows. It’s all good.
Oh, and a couple people wanted to know about the pattern. I found it in an old Piecework magazine that I don’t have in front of me right now. Luckily for anyone interested in this knit, it was republished in Piecework in July/August of ‘07. That’s got to be a lot easier to find now than the one I got my hands on from whenever. Here’s the Ravelry entry.
Ouch. I hate ripping back, but thanks for sharing your tips. Maybe it won’t hurt so much if I follow your rules.
You are a brave brave woman. I too hate ripping, but it’s way better than staring at that mistake 80-some rows back for the rest of my life. Nice job on writing out the rules. I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it that way, especially the part about waiting overnight. Just last week, I was working on a fairly easy sock pattern, one row of yo’s and pattern stitches, and 3 rows of knit the knits and purl the purls, and I thought I had missed the pattern row, so I ripped back one row only to discover I was ripping back yo’s. D’oh! That was totally a case being too tired at the time. Luckily though, it was only like 60 stitches or so.
your fairies are so cute! I am so eager to knit some lace, but I am a bit distracted at the moment, I think I will leave it til after mid April!
Thanks for the info on the lace project. You are sooo right about waiting when you are tired. I learned that quilting. If it’s going poorly, go to bed and start fresh.
Cutest little fairy party I’ve seen in ages.
Great rules!
Your purple scarf looks great.
And of course your fairy girls… too cute!