Whomp!
That was the sound of the knitting goddess whomping me on the head for the sin of hubris. I’m knitting the Forest Canopy Shawl, which I keep referring to as an easy lace pattern. It has 8 pattern rows, half of which are straight purl back rows, and a 5th row is plain knit, so there are only really 3 rows that you have to pay attention to. Should be easy, right?
On top of that, I’m getting close to the end, and have what I think is enough yarn for a couple more repeats and then the 8 row border pattern, which is just repeated once. I’ve been trying to think out how I could safely use as much of the Zephyr lace yarn to make the shawl as large as possible, and still have enough for the border. I finally came upon the brilliant idea of using my drug-dealers scale. I finished a row 8, weighed the remaining ball of yarn, then started in on another pattern repeat. My plan is to finish another repeat, weigh it again, then I should be able to calculate roughly how many repeats I can get out of it. There will be a little fudging with this, as of course the rows get lonnnnger with each repeat, but it should be better than just guessing. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for coming up with this plan. Even a little above average, I would say.
So I’m knitting merrily along, about 3/4 across a loooonnng row 5, and discovered I’d somehow dropped a stitch or something screwy. I haven’t been using lifelines with this one, as it’s a pretty easy pattern to tell when you’ve goofed up. (More hubris.) The only hope was to tink back, stitch by stitch, across lonnnnnggg rows until I got to where I’d fracked it up. I ended up unknitting 3 rows before I found it. Somehow I’d skipped 3 yarnovers all in one little inch long section. I probably didn’t forget to do them, but somehow dropped them on the purl back row. I apparently screwed up the “easy” purl back row. I’m also more than a little embarrassed to admit that it took me that long to figure out that it was dropped yarnovers. Those actually are fairly easy to fix without tinking back, if you know where they should go. An average knitter could probably figure that out.
There are no photos of this. A blob of knitted lace done correctly doesn’t look much different in a photo from a blob of knitted lace with mistakes. Just imagine them, OK?
This is where a knitting blog turned out to be a blessing. I had the very brief, but very definitely serious thought of ripping the whole thing out into a pile of ramen yarn, then taking it to the backyard and burning it. Except I’d have to admit to all of you that I did it. Sooner or later somebody would comment “whatever happened to that pretty green lace shawl you were knitting”, and I’d have to confess. So I tinked. I tinked three very loooonnnnnnnngggg rows. And I reknit, and now I’m back to that row 5. I still don’t know how many repeats I can squeak out of this baby. I’m off to knit rows 6-7-8.
Hummmm……must be some shared gene we have.
I NEVER use lifelines but recommend them to everyone.
I did not use lifelines on the WRS yikes! I got lucky nothing ever happened.
I did shift the center stitch in the Hyrna shawl AND it took me 30 rows to figure that one out ……..grumble.
I am knitting the swallowtail shawl and this am I dropped a stitch and never did really find it!
There goes your blog rating with the title for today 😀
I dropped three stitches within an inch of the shawl I finished a couple months ago and didn’t discover it until I hard blocked the dang thing. Nothing like tugging, tugging, tugging and seeing a gaping hole open up before your eyes. I almost had heart failure. Snagged them with a safety pin and I still haven’t fixed. Just add it to the list…
I find that the “easy” rows are the easiest to screw up, because you let your guard down. 🙂 I drop yarnovers like crazy…
Oh, the pain of all that tinking!!!!!!!!
This SO sounds like something I would do.
I totally feel your pain.
Holy crap. That’s a PITA but will be totally gorgeous like all the stuff you do!
Damn. I hate tinking long ass rows of lace. Hate it. I’ve had to do it more times than I care to admit. My sympathies…
The same kinds of things happen to me all of the time. I get really pleased with something I’ve done, or figured out how to do, etc.
And then comes my downfall.
All the same, I can’t wait to see the finished shawl!
Oh my!
You are a much better person than I am. I think I woulda looked a little harder for a box of matches!
It’s the easy ones that get ya every time!
It happens to the best of us. And those stupid mistakes are the ones that we think we’ll never make. Like Debi said!
Been there, done that, unfortunately they don’t give t-shirts for it. Honestly, if you’re going to do lace, it’s going to happen. Ask how many looooong rows I’ve tinked back! It ain’t purty. Despite that, I still don’t use lifelines. In my humdrum life it’s my one concession to living dangerously!
An elderly woman who visited my shop a couple times, was well in her 70’s, and had been knitting longer than I’ve been alive, said these words of wisdom to me, which I’ve taken to heart.
“As you knit, so shall you rip.”
Truer words have never been spoken. Take heart in the knowledge that I got to tink about 2 hours worth of lace work myself last night.
Damn! I was hoping it was easy. I’m planning on doing that as my first big lace project. I guess I’ll learn from you and use lifelines.
Confess all you need. We grant you absolution. 🙂
I’m trying to knit the Forest Canopy shawl as large as possible, too. I figure each half takes 1/3 of the yarn and the border will take the last 1/3. What do you think? I’ve been weighing the yarn along the way, too. Thanks.
This may not make you feel better, but know that I share your pain. I spent an entire evening knitting from my *own* chart, and when I was done, I saw the easiest cable in the pattern twisted on the wrong row–at which point I realized that I was following the chart in the wrong place. Since lots of neck shaping took place after that, I had to rip the entire thing back.
Hee hee – accountability… So I ordered a similar scale from amazon and was much amused that the “buy with…” product was a book on drug horticulture. 😀
If I snicker, I know mine will fall off the needles on its own. I want so badly to pick it up again!
on a positive note…it just shows how REAL (not average) you are in this all and everytime you post about a mistakes it makes me feel better with mine!
If this is a typical sort of triangular shawl, then after the nth row, you have knit n^2+5n stitches total.
You can use this to calculate what percent of the shawl is left to knit, and your scale will tell you what percent of the yarn you have left. Very straightforward. I explain more on my blog, April 27th 2007 post.
Yes it’s only at the times when we think we’ve done everything right and have won out over the mistakes. And then you can almost hear that maniacal laughter somewhere just out of reach.
That’s when you should just reach up over your shoulder, snatch the goddess by those long flowing locks, and tie the lovely yarn you are using around that neck.
Well, that’s what you usually feel like doing at one of those times. I have un-knitted on many an occasion. It’s not fun.
And no matter how many times you tell yourself: “It’s ok, you get to knit again, you enjoy knitting”, it’s still a big pain.
I hope you don’t have any more little drops.
But if you do decide you need that bonfire, you must take pics!
🙂
Ok. Now I feel better. Leaf Lace is in time out because I screwed up the row before last. I counted the stitches, they were the correct count. So I purl back, and then do half the next pattern row. One stitch too many. Tink back, do it again, one stitch too many. Which means two rows ago, one side has one stitch too many, and one side is one stitch short. It wasn’t the blog that kept me from burning it (yes, I did contemplate that alternative). It was sheer not wanting to be an average knitter.
So glad you tinked. You’ll be glad too, it’s a great shawl pattern.
And just so you know, I suspect that the easier patterns are, the easier it is to mess them up, since we don’t have to give it much attention,and we knit them at group meetings or in the evening, and hmmmm, could it be there was a peach martini involved? (big grins)
That little scale and being able to measure and predict if you have enough is really cool! E