One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
One of the great things about knitting and crocheting is that, most of the time, when you find a mistake you can make a decision about whether to go back to the point where it happened, call it a feature, or mark it for a later fix. I've done all of these things at different times; one of the lessons I've learned is that if something is bugging me, it's worth going back and fixing it right away. Thinking it will all work out in the end, or deciding to fix it later, rarely works out in ways that sit well with me.
Yesterday afternoon I experienced a couple of different versions of this. The first was with the first felted slipper. Somehow my count got off one stitch, and no matter what I did I couldn't correct for it in a way that didn't look crooked. I ended up tinking back about 5 rows, after attempting to re-knit several of them several different times. After all of that, the counting worked out (of course - the pattern is flawless), and I managed to progress to the point where I fold the cuff over:
The second event happened when I was blocking the first of the socks. I saw a small hole next to where the stitches are picked up for the heel. Lo and behold, it is a dropped stitch!!
I know exactly what happened, but did not notice it at the time. Picking up and knitting stitches can be a little finicky, and in this case the pattern called for knitting them through the back loop (KBL) as well. The intent with the KBL is to tighten up these stitches and close the gaps that can form along that edge. I'm a fairly firm knitter, and don't usually do this because any gaps are pretty negligible. What happened in this case is that, instead of KBL-ing, I knit around the stitch. And because I was knitting by feel in dim light, I didn't notice it at the time. Now my plan is to work the stitch back up to the edge (with a small crochet hook) and sew the last loop down. I hate sewing. Arrgggh.
On a somewhat brighter note - the wildlife have begun to stir. I spied the deer out in the woods yesterday afternoon, and they had been all over the field the night before (there were hoof prints everywhere!!). This morning we spied our foxie loping along the edge of the neighbor's field, probably on his way to hunting for varmints. The birds are all still quiet for now, but it will warm up today so I expect there will be more sightings later on.
Yesterday afternoon I experienced a couple of different versions of this. The first was with the first felted slipper. Somehow my count got off one stitch, and no matter what I did I couldn't correct for it in a way that didn't look crooked. I ended up tinking back about 5 rows, after attempting to re-knit several of them several different times. After all of that, the counting worked out (of course - the pattern is flawless), and I managed to progress to the point where I fold the cuff over:
The second event happened when I was blocking the first of the socks. I saw a small hole next to where the stitches are picked up for the heel. Lo and behold, it is a dropped stitch!!
I know exactly what happened, but did not notice it at the time. Picking up and knitting stitches can be a little finicky, and in this case the pattern called for knitting them through the back loop (KBL) as well. The intent with the KBL is to tighten up these stitches and close the gaps that can form along that edge. I'm a fairly firm knitter, and don't usually do this because any gaps are pretty negligible. What happened in this case is that, instead of KBL-ing, I knit around the stitch. And because I was knitting by feel in dim light, I didn't notice it at the time. Now my plan is to work the stitch back up to the edge (with a small crochet hook) and sew the last loop down. I hate sewing. Arrgggh.
On a somewhat brighter note - the wildlife have begun to stir. I spied the deer out in the woods yesterday afternoon, and they had been all over the field the night before (there were hoof prints everywhere!!). This morning we spied our foxie loping along the edge of the neighbor's field, probably on his way to hunting for varmints. The birds are all still quiet for now, but it will warm up today so I expect there will be more sightings later on.
Comments