theraineysisters knitting and so much more

April 23, 2012

From Sally — There Are None So Blind . . .

Filed under: Milkweed — surly @ 1:39 pm

Sometimes, I can look and look at something without noticing one small detail. Once that detail leaps out, though, it’s impossible to ignore. That’s what happened with my Milkweed sweater. I was knitting merrily along, admiring my work and my progress, without ever noticing the glaring error I had made in one of the cables on the front. And then, somehow, it finally caught my attention. Rut roh. The mistake was even evident in one of the photographs I posted here a week or so ago. Either none of you noticed, or you were too polite to tell me. Here is a photo, with the mistake smack dab in the middle.

Do you see it? It’s not in the big cable on the left. It’s the little cable in the middle repeat of the Milkweed pattern. It’s not that the cable crosses in a different direction — that’s deliberate. It’s that it crosses four times, instead of three. Oops. Because the stitches are traveling, and the traveling involves decreases and other complications, the fix wasn’t going to be as simple as just dropping down the cable stitches. Instead, I had to “take down” a larger section of knitting. I isolated the large cable because it was fine, and then took out all of the stitches involved in the milkweed pattern itself.

The spaghetti tangle of yarn you see are the running threads, that is the stitches that once connected the big cable to the rest of the sweater. Now all I had to do was reknit that section of the pattern using the running thread from each row as my working yarn. It’s awkward, but doable, and much less painful than ripping out the entire cardigan back to that point. (Remember, I had chosen to knit the entire body in one piece. This is where that decision could have come back to haunt me.)

All better. The running threads got a little stretched from all of the manipulation, but I think once it’s blocked it will look fine. This happened a few days ago, so I’ve made more progress than this photo shows despite my stupidity.

It’s tempting to keep these kinds of mishaps private, but in the immortal words of Mr. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice: “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?” And if you ever wonder how I’ve learned to correct these kinds of mistakes, it’s because I’ve made so many of them!

ETA: A concerned reader commented errrr, is now a bad time to point out that the one you’ve corrected now crosses in the opposite direction of the others? the top bit that flows up into the leaf now comes from under another cable instead of from over it.

Just so that no one else worries, that is a deliberate design element of the pattern. Those cables alternate crossing directions. So that is one mistake I actually didn’t make!

29 Comments »

  1. I can’t even imagine how you made that correction as you’ve described it and shown us with the photos!!! You are an amazing knitter (as you’ve shown many times). I am so impressed with your skills. I know I’ve learned a lot from making mistakes (many , many of them!) but I can’t begin to carom this type of repair. I guess that’s how you learn, but your ‘fix’ is incredible. I stand in awe!

    It’s a beautiful sweater – thank you so much for sharing this with us!

    Comment by Barb — April 23, 2012 @ 2:02 pm

  2. Wow. I’m in awe of your perseverance!

    Comment by Kate — April 23, 2012 @ 2:02 pm

  3. I would have just made it a “design feature” and done it just like that for the rest of the sweater! Although, I admit that I did go back and change a K2tog to a ssk over 100 times on the border of a shawl because it would look a little smoother (this assumes you were going to be studying the lace with a magnifying glass, because those stitches were way to small to notice it with the naked eye!)

    Comment by Wendelene — April 23, 2012 @ 2:14 pm

  4. You mean that wasn’t a design feature? Ok, I can handle doing what you did on one miscrossed cable, but there is no way in the world that I could rip out multiple cables & reknit them without finding myself curled up fetal position. You might be able to undo & reknit faster than reknittng the whole sweater, but it would take me four times longer than just reknitting the dumb thing!

    Comment by Samina — April 23, 2012 @ 2:27 pm

  5. I think it’s very helpful that you’re willing to show your mistakes – some people probably don’t realize it can be done without ripping out the whole sweater. For those who think it sounds scary, I encourage you to knit a small swatch with worsted weight, knit a couple cables, then pull the cable off the needles and experiment with fixing it. (Or do it with no cables and just regular knitting first.) It’s only a swatch, it won’t hurt anything if it doesn’t work, but you could learn a lot from the experience! Better yet if you can do it at a knitting store or around other people with experience making fixes so they can give you moral support.

    Comment by Marcia — April 23, 2012 @ 3:18 pm

  6. I don’t dare laugh at you. I bow down to your bravery at taking down so many stitches for so many rows to correct an extra cable cross. That’s a beautiful stretch of knitting.

    Comment by Lauren — April 23, 2012 @ 3:19 pm

  7. I don’t know about you, but I always feel like a Knitting Ninja after I execute one of these maneuvers. I mean, I wouldn’t miscross a complex cable on purpose or anything, but there’s certainly a high that comes with fixing it!

    Comment by Chelsea — April 23, 2012 @ 4:05 pm

  8. one of my all time favorite quotes from p&p.

    best to have made the repair now, than to be sorry forever.

    Comment by dana — April 23, 2012 @ 4:09 pm

  9. Once again I want to say MANY thanks for sharing! It is beyond my comprehension and ability to attempt that kind of “fix” but it is soooooo very inspiring to know that the possibilities within knitting are endless! You’re talents do not go unnoticed and are much appreciated!!!

    Comment by Michelle Martino — April 23, 2012 @ 4:56 pm

  10. It’s only because of the willingness to share both mistakes and correctiuons that I have learned how to make those same corrections to my own mistakes. So thank you!

    Comment by KathleenC — April 23, 2012 @ 4:56 pm

  11. I’ve done that dropping down thing. It’s just nice to see that I’m not the only one that has to. In truth, I do it at least once a project…I’m getting really good at it!

    Comment by Lisle — April 23, 2012 @ 5:06 pm

  12. errrr, is now a bad time to point out that the one you’ve corrected now crosses in the opposite direction of the others? the top bit that flows up into the leaf now comes from under another cable instead of from over it.

    Sorry :/

    Comment by Astroknot — April 23, 2012 @ 6:25 pm

  13. Edit: careful reading suggests that that is deliberate. I hope this is true ^.^ happy knitting.

    Comment by Astroknot — April 23, 2012 @ 6:26 pm

  14. After you have corrected the mistake, I hope you say to yourself…”Damn, I’m good!!” Makes you so proud of yourself even if no one else will ever know the extra effort you took to make it just right. And I believe that we each need to be able to be proud of what we have done. Every time you look at this sweater, you can remember that you put that extra into it and can be proud of yourself. Damn, you’re good!!

    Comment by Rebecca Elder — April 23, 2012 @ 6:27 pm

  15. It’s beautiful and amazing. Such a huge accomplishment. I have to go lie down now.

    Comment by annie — April 23, 2012 @ 9:38 pm

  16. oh, I had to do that on a cable project once too and it looks scary to have all that loose yarn, but it’s amazing how you can find the right bit to pick up again — what astonishes me is that you had the presence of mind to take photos for the blog — when I’m in that deep I think of nothing else but the crisis at hand. LOL.

    Comment by Wool Free and Lovin Knit — April 23, 2012 @ 11:05 pm

  17. wooohh… you’re amazing! if it’s happened to me, I would have been incapable to fix it! i absolutely don’t know how to remove only a part of knitting, and re-knit only this part!! i would love to know how you did… lol

    Comment by kipulkai — April 24, 2012 @ 2:17 am

  18. I’m really, really impressed with this! Thanks for sharing how it is done. You just can’t tell that it has been re-knitted

    Comment by Meg — April 24, 2012 @ 4:44 am

  19. That just made me want to cry. Kudos on a good job of fixing the mistake

    Comment by rebecca — April 24, 2012 @ 9:56 am

  20. My view has always been that knitting keeps us humble. No matter how experienced we are, there’s no immunity from the occasional error…

    Comment by Ann — April 24, 2012 @ 10:27 am

  21. Impressive repair!

    Comment by newjerseylaura — April 24, 2012 @ 11:32 am

  22. I, too, appreciate the lessons in what you’re showing here. Reading instructive blogs like yours has given me the courage to try such repairs myself; something I assure you I’d never have thought to do on my lonesome!

    Comment by Linda — April 24, 2012 @ 12:07 pm

  23. I love fixing errors like this! It makes me feel so clever… but I guess not as clever as I would feel if I DIDN’T make the mistake in the first place 🙂

    Comment by Kathy — April 24, 2012 @ 3:20 pm

  24. Oh, you’re so much braver than me! I would have ripped back the whole thing, not saving anything I’d done right, to rework the booboo. I appreciate the lesson you’ve shared, here, too, although I still don’t think I could have undone just a portion of the work and made it look as good as you did!

    Comment by Snowcatcher — April 25, 2012 @ 6:50 pm

  25. You are a true expert at dropping down to fix errors! I truly admire your skill. Actually, I did sorta see the error, although I completely failed to recognize it. I thought that one cable looked a bit cramped when I admired the pictures, but I did NOT see the reason.

    Comment by astrid — April 25, 2012 @ 7:14 pm

  26. This is gorgeous! Now I have to make one. Thanks for enabling me! 😀

    Comment by Annette — April 26, 2012 @ 1:33 pm

  27. So impressive. Thanks!

    Comment by LeighK — April 27, 2012 @ 8:48 pm

  28. Please keep sharing these fixes. They’re inspiring.

    Given that every second cable crosses in the opposite direction, I would have considered adding the extra twist into every subsequent cable that crossed in that direction – an “extra” design element *g*

    Comment by Sivani — May 23, 2012 @ 12:27 pm

  29. Very experienced knitter but I am really struggling with this pattern and spent last 8 hours ripping out and trying again. I can’t get the first row of the pattern to work out right. My out knitter is having great problems with it too and she can knit anything!!
    My maiden name was Rainey!!

    Comment by Carol Daniel — January 11, 2015 @ 1:15 pm

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