I make my share of mistakes while knitting. Sometimes I misunderstand directions. Sometimes I miscount. Sometimes I think I’m smarter than I really am. And sometimes I get caught up watching Jeremy Irons in The Borgias and just don’t pay attention.
For example, the other day I randomly threw a p2tog into my pink Japanese cardigan. (I can’t even blame Jeremy for that one.) I figured it out four or five rows later when my stitch count was off. I came to the end of a section of traveling stitches and instead of two purl stitches remaining, I only had one. It wasn’t difficult to fix that mistake — the hard part was finding it. I looked and looked at both sides of my knitting until I realized it wasn’t a dropped stitch, but a “gee what was I thinking” decrease. I dropped down a few rows, undid the p2tog, and laddered back up, adjusting the tension of the surrounding stitches to have enough yarn for the stitch that had been decreased on the rows above the mistake. Here are a couple photographs of the fix.
That wasn’t so hard, now was it?
I’m also working on a lace shawl — a gift for a dear friend. It’s a beautiful but relatively simple pattern (more on it at the end of this post). That’s where Jeremy Irons comes in. I was working on the shawl the other night. I glanced down at the pattern repeat, memorized it, knit that row, and kept going while Jeremy did things modern Popes just.do.not.do. In the light of day, I noticed something wrong. The pattern has lines of stitches that converge. Left leaning decreases (sk2p — slip 1, k2tog, pass the slipped stitch over) are paired with right leaning decreases (k3tog). I know this. I had already done these decreases on other rows. This time, however, I did the left leaning decrease across the entire row, and by the time I noticed I was five rows along in the pattern. Rut roh. The mistake is shown below.
So, to fix it I was going to have to drop back, and then recreate the intervening rows. (Did I mention there were fifteen repeats of this mistake?) The key part of the five rows (from where I was down to the mistake):
1. Current row (RS): yo, k3tog, yo
2. (WS): purl back
3. (RS): yo, k2tog
4. (WS): purl back
5. Mistake row (RS): yo, k3tog, yo (instead of yo, sk2p, yo)
I chose to work the next wrong side row and correct as I went along. I worked to each mistake, turned the knitting so that the right side was facing, and dropped down to the mistake. I only dropped down those stitches that I absolutely had to. Because I was correcting just a few stitches, I didn’t pin out the running threads to keep track of them — instead, I used a different wooden (non-slippery) needle for each row. After fixing the mistake a dozen times, I had it down to a science. It suddenly occurred to me that I should try to demonstrate what I was doing for the blog. That was harder than I thought it would be, even with a tripod. But here it is. (Disclaimer: I hate my voice, and I know this is not going to win for best documentary short at next year’s Oscars.)
Here is a close up of the repair.
Whew! That was one of those mistakes that I could have left — it didn’t change the stitch count. I obviously kept going without noticing it. I am making it for someone who doesn’t knit, and so I doubt she would have noticed. But the overall effect of the pattern would have been diminished.
As for the shawl pattern, it is Romi Hill’s Asterope, from her book Seven Small Shawls to Knit. The photograph below is from the book (I hope Romi doesn’t mind!).
The Asterope pattern is very clear, as are the charts. I cannot blame Romi for my mistake. I blame you, Jeremy.
“And that’s all I did”. You are a master of understatement 😉
Comment by Pam — April 5, 2011 @ 10:25 pm
Thanks for Jeremy. However, my brain did explode contemplating the lace repair and redo. Cannot comprehend. I bow to your talents.
Comment by Safeena — April 5, 2011 @ 10:33 pm
Inspiring, but requiring far more nerve than I possess. I would have learned to love the tiny imperfection.
Comment by MaryLou — April 5, 2011 @ 11:00 pm
Holy (holey?) Moses! That’s mighty impressive. I would not have even attempted the repair. I know one’s own voice always sounds funny, but you really have nothing to worry about. 🙂
Comment by jamy — April 5, 2011 @ 11:54 pm
My favorite line was “that’s all I did!” My God woman, that would be the biggest understatement of the decade! I have fixed mistakes in my time, but that was the finest job I’ve ever seen of fixing a mistake. My grandmother said the level of expertise demonstrated by a knitter was not in the stitches executed but in the ability to correct mistakes. You have proven her right! Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Liz C. — April 6, 2011 @ 12:17 am
I meant “decade” but I think I was going to say century, so there you go. Mistakes are a part of life!!
Comment by Liz C. — April 6, 2011 @ 12:18 am
Ditto all of the above by a factor of about 12 squared. But, seriously, how did the divine Jeremy of Brideshead turn into this divine wreck of an old guy in just a couple of months? B.R. was just last fall, wasn’t it?? (Oh dear, I guess not. They’ve re-made it, I hear….) And the shawl pattern may be just the one I need. Middle daughter is marrying in July and I’m knitting shawls for all 3 girls, maybe also little shawlettes for rest of attendants. Yes, I’ve heard that I AM crazy. The Year Of Lace.
Comment by Suzan — April 6, 2011 @ 9:23 am
Again, I am in Absolute.Awe.! First of all, I don’t think I know enough to even consider knitting that shawl (which is so beautiful!!), but then to fix those ‘mistakes’ as you have is mind-boggling! You are definitely a master of the craft! Gorgeous! (and your dear friend is extremely lucky!)
Comment by Barb — April 6, 2011 @ 9:59 am
Brilliant repair.
But my favorite part of the post was the way the shape and rich color of the shawl echoed Jeremy’s cape – it was fated!
😉
Comment by Sivani — April 6, 2011 @ 10:38 am
Is there a saint named for knitters?? If so, you should be canonized. Incredibly beautiful shawl, amazing skill at making the correction, and entertaining blog entry for how it all happened!
Comment by Ann — April 6, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
You know, Jeremy doesn’t look nearly as distraught about the blame as he probably should.
Comment by GeekKnitter — April 6, 2011 @ 2:04 pm
Sally, you are some sort of wizard.
Comment by j00licious — April 6, 2011 @ 2:14 pm
Beautiful shawl, and some very nice fixing going on as well!! Upon looking at the pictures it just occurred to me that you’re obviously doing the center 3-stitch-decrease like: slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slipped stich over – and that creates a kind of purl bump row. If you were to make the decrease like: slip 2 knitwise, knit 1, pass 2 over – you would get a nice row of knit stitches running up the center. Or not. Just a comment. 🙂
Comment by Ina — April 6, 2011 @ 2:34 pm
Wow! You have nerves of steel. Thanks for showing this. Next time I make a mistake, I hope to be inspired to follow your excellent example. You are definitely one of my “knitting gurus!”
Comment by Liesl — April 6, 2011 @ 3:12 pm
That Jeremy! (Thanks for showing us the “fixes!”)
Comment by Kym — April 6, 2011 @ 4:52 pm
I love that you made us a video of fixing lace mistakes! This was very helpful to me!!
Comment by Trista — April 7, 2011 @ 3:43 am
I love the video. I just completed that row of the chart and now realize how easy it is to screw up that way even without Jeremy. If I hadn’t watched your video in the morning, I wouldn’t have been so conscious and might be doing some fixing of my own. Thank you for saving my tail.
Comment by Donna — April 7, 2011 @ 8:27 am
Jeremy’s papal gloves! Surely we need a handknit interpretation of those. . .
Comment by stashdragon — April 7, 2011 @ 12:22 pm
I have tried to correct mistakes before by dropping stitches down to my mistake, but have always ended up with a tangled mess and thus have given up and had to unravel entire rows, so thank you thank you thank you. Funny how we dislike the sound of our own voices. Your voice sounds soothing and calming to my ear. Thanks for your inspiring and informative blog Sally and Susan.
Comment by LynnB — April 7, 2011 @ 1:02 pm
The Romi shawl is gorgeous! Thanks for the referral to the patterns, 7 small shawls to knit. I have an abundance of sock yarn (to put it mildly)and I love to wear small shawls as scarves. I totally understand the issue of being distracted by Jeremy Irons. I might at times be mesmerized.
Comment by Elizabeth — April 7, 2011 @ 1:50 pm
OMG! I made exactly the same mistake in this (TOTALLY AWESOME) pattern! You are a better woman than I… I let it go (shhhhhh! don’t tell) I can’t blame Jeremy – though he COULD have made me do it; I blame my fave baseball team. Knitting + Colorado Rockies = well, see above!
Comment by Allison — April 7, 2011 @ 2:20 pm
I learned a lot from that video. Thank you so much for going though the work to do it. I think when I have had to go back and fix an error before, I would unravel the whole shawl down to the row in question. It never would have occured to me to put stitches on hold as I was working my way down to the problem. You two are great.
Comment by Michele with one "l" — April 7, 2011 @ 2:44 pm
That was fascinating. I loved hearing you explain. I hope you do a lot more videos. We haven’t got the Borgias in the UK yet but its coming soon I hadn’t realised it was JEREMY IRONS, OMG. I think I need an all knit project for that one!
Comment by LOWL — April 7, 2011 @ 4:19 pm
Thank you!! for showing me how to keep track of the running threads. Next time I won’t have to frog (rip-it, rip-it) 9 rows because I lost track of where I was. And you have a very nice speaking voice, clear and pleasant to the ear.
Comment by SusanOD — April 7, 2011 @ 4:31 pm
The lace repair is AMAZING Sally!. I too have fixed a lot of mistakes, but never anything like that. I would have just ripped back and re-knit the 5 rows. I am sure it would have been faster for me (to say nothing of less scary). I do not actually knit lace yet, I just buy yarn in preparation for knitting lace!
Comment by marsha — April 7, 2011 @ 6:41 pm
That guy isn’t nearly Popey enough – waaaay too skinny.
Comment by Mike Smith — April 7, 2011 @ 7:34 pm
Thanks so much for taking the trouble to make the video. Your technique is brilliant!
Comment by JudiP53 — April 8, 2011 @ 4:37 pm
Amazing!! “and that’s all I did”!! I agree with those above calling that such an understatement!!
Comment by Lee Cockrum — April 13, 2011 @ 9:48 am
NOTHING wrong with your voice. Very interesting video although I am nowhere near your expertise. I figure just watching should stretch my tiny little knitting mind. Jeremy made to play a Borgia pope (Pius XII was quite skinny). Will have to look into The Borgias. HBO no doubt. Boo. Would love to know the yarn, the color, and the needles. All are gorgeous.
Comment by chloe — April 13, 2011 @ 2:11 pm
Nice technique using spare dpns to track the running yarns. I have usually winged it, thereby taking twice as long in tracking down which yarn goes next. Next time (and there will be a next time, I’m sure), I’ll give this a go. Thanks!
Comment by twinsetellen — April 17, 2011 @ 7:57 am