major knitting mistake

[snugglekitty]

I just discovered a major mistake near the beginning of the project I've been working on. This project. I'm not talking about a pattern error. I'm talking about, I screwed this up bigtime. The beginning of the mistake was 50 rows ago, when I was working on the project years back, before I picked up it again.

Yes, it does matter. Not in the sense of being able to see it, I don't think that anyone but me could tell by looking, but the whole pattern is based on the rows that I knitted wrong. So, it's not wrong fifty rows ago and then right for the subsequent 49, it's wrong for 50 rows. Weh.

At this point, I have three basic choices:

1) Frog pond. I could unravel the project, yes the whole project, and start over.
2) Try to fix it. I could - maybe - MAYBE - fix just the affected sections. I'm not at all sure of this and it might make things worse. It also might take longer and would definitely be more annoying while, going on, than reknitting.
3) Try to find a workaround. Try to find a way to get from the pattern being wrong to the pattern being right. Normally this is what I would do, but I've never made lace before.

To these three choices, 7j added the suggestion that I could take it to a knitting store and beg for help. (Most places have some sort of "knitting doctor" thing where you pay by the hour and they bail you out of your messes.) syprina also added the idea that I could start the pattern again with a different skein of yarn, and use the old piece for something else because it's pretty. This is a good idea, from my perspective, because it's non-final. I can start again and go, "My god! I'll die if I try to reknit this all!" and then try to do something with the piece I already have, instead.

I knew that when I picked this project up and it was going so well, it was too good to be true. Argh!!

Comments

[mangosteen]

My google and wikipedia skills, they fail me.

What does "frog pond" mean in the context of knitting?

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

Lucy at Mind's Eye Yarns (Porter Sq. Cambridge) can probably help you. She's brilliant at that sort of thing.

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

Ripping out rows of kitting is called frogging, think rippet, rippet, rippet. I'm assuming that the big pile of ripped out yard would be the pond ;)

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

The similarity of "rip it" to "ribbit" is the reason we call it frogging. Indeed, the frog pond is the pile of yarn at the end.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

It's great to have a specific recommendation! I now have a date for her to try to save my knitting next Friday. If it doesn't work, well, I'll only be out twelve bucks.

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

Be warned -- Lucy stocks hand dyed merino tencel sock yarn. It's knitting crack! :)

[clonetwin.livejournal.com]

How does it look with the 50 wrong rows? If it looks ok, I would keep going doing it wrong - it's not a mistake, it's a design feature! Otherwise, I'd frog it.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

I believe you. I have a weakness for sock yarn anyway. Sigh.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

It looks okay with the 50 wrong rows. But it would need to be transitioned to correctness before the two parts of the pattern come together, which is in about five rows. That's the part I'm concerned will look weird - transitioning it to follow the pattern. Maybe I should try doing that and see how it looks.

[clonetwin.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. If you can make the transition thing work, great. If not, oh well.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Normally I would just call it a design element - I usually only use patterns as a loose guide anyway. But this is a lace project - my first lace project, in fact - and that makes things a bit more complicated.

[clonetwin.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I tend to adhere more closely to the pattern when it's a lace project, too. I love the pattern, btw.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think it's beautiful, too. I'm making it in cotton/tencel, which has awesome drape, sheen, and stitch definition, in kind of an orchid color.

I recommend the designer - she was very patient with my emailed question a few weeks back.

[monicaboston.livejournal.com]

Doing workarounds when crocheting lace is tough--at least for me. I wonder if knitting is the same way? I'm inclined to support syprina's idea of saving this piece for something else and maybe using it to play with workaround techniques, and starting the pattern anew with a distinct skein.

[boy-wonderwolf.livejournal.com]

If looking at the final piece and seeing the error bothers you - Ribbit! It doesn't matter if you are the only one who can see it. At least this is what I do with my knitting gaffs.

[hanseth.livejournal.com]

Before you do anything, I'd suggest spending the time to put in a lifeline (http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/lifeline.shtm), on a row before the mistake. It's slightly more tricky to insert a lifeline on a row well after it's been knitted, but it can definitely be done. That way, if you do decide to frog, you don't have to frog the entire thing. (Of course, this is less important if the mistake is in the first few rows of knitting -- at that point you may wish to just start over.

I like the idea of trying to transition it back to correctness soon. In any case, good luck! Hope your appointment on Friday is productive.