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Knitting Friday

Well yes, it is Saturday. In fact, it's Saturday and I'm on a different computer because pictures have not been uploaded to my computer yet.

I think we left the saga of the KAL of the seamless top at the point where I tried the beauty on and discovered mistakes in a row 4 inches up. After the initial screaming, I did get to work fixing the problem; but in a very different way than I anticipated.

First, on the right is the top just before I cut the yarn (which I never did.) For some reason the color is orange but you get the picture.

I thought I would give some pointers on repairing mistakes; pointers which I've picked up from many, many mistakes. First, you need these supplies:
good size safety pins and
a very small sized (US 2 or 3) circular needle

Here's how I proceeded:
1. I marked the beginning stitch of the pattern row just below the mistake with a safety pin.
2. I marked my mistakes with safety pins.
3. I would have removed my working needle but I had bound off so I carefully tinked the bound off row and then unraveled the yarn back to the row before the mistakes. (Hopefully, this will only be one row.)
4. At the "mistake" row, I pulled out the stitches of this row and, using a small circular needle, I put the live "clean" stitches on it.
5. So now I had a row without mistakes ready to knit. (It doesn't matter if you start at the beginning of the row, as long as the beginning of the row is marked. (See Step 1.)
6. Then I started knitting the correct pattern row the correct pattern row onto the larger sized needles which I had used for the pattern.
7. That's it. You should be good to go with the mistakes eliminated and none of the working stitches dropped.

However, if you are working with slippery yarn however, this method may not work. With slippery yarn, lifelines spaced every ten rows and not removed until the sweater is at its final stage (already tried on and examined for mistakes) are the answer.

However, a reworked top w/o mistakes was not my outcome. For, when I first looked at the top and discovered the mistakes, I also discovered that I didn't like the color nor the pattern. Truth be told, I think the "wrinkles" in the yarn were not properly removed with washing and hanging.

But I wasn't giving up immediately. I frogged the entire top and started again with the trinity stitch which I tout as the best, and sometimes the only stitch, for crinkly yarn. However, the bobbles of that stitch which are created by the *P3tog, K-P-K in 1 st* are worked on the wrong side which means in circular knitting the public side of the knitting would be inside - not a very good way to observe for errors along the way.

So, at left is what I finally decided on. It's a simple crocheted shawl with chain 5 loops and 1 DC in these loop. I increased it with two loops in each row's last loop until I reached 85". Now, I'm working even. It will be slightly crescent shaped but I'm going to wear it as a large scarf.

So, in the end, the saga of the KAL did not turn out successfully for me. But I learned a lot and I also started a lace and stockinette pattern for another top which I'll share with you next week.

Happy knitting.