the blue blog archives: garter stitch rescue

Found a boo-boo in my current sideways scarf - about twenty rows down. It's supposed to be all garter stitch, but there was one spot where a single incomplete stitch produced a tiny blip of stockinette. I was too horrified to think of snapping a picture of it, but trust me it was visible. That little "v" was sticking out like a sore thumb in the sea of garter ridges. In desperation I decided to drop two stitches all the way down to the error to try to correct it. I haven't had too many successes with recovering more than one dropped stitch in stockinette, so I was not confident. Once I managed to get to the error and correct it though I was bold enough to set the knitting down and get the camera. Here's the scarf, opened up, as it were, just after I corrected the incomplete stitch.

Now for the hard part - redoing all the other stitches! It looks like a zipper's been opened in the middle of the scarf. If only it closed as easily! Slowly, slowly, I made it back up to the current row and was so wiped out that I forgot to take a picture. That's enough knitting for one day! Finished scarf coming soon....

posted by alison at 8:16 am | in a christmas story

Comments

Wow! You are quite couragous! I can barely get one dropped stitch back on going the right way, I can't imagine dropping two 20 rows back! I also can't imagine knowing how to fix the problem in the first place. Bowing to the Knitting Goddess....we're not worthy, we're not worthy. :)

Posted by: Barbara at December 5, 2003 8:58 AM

Nice fix-it job. Sometimes you've just gotta take a deep breath and do something hard n'risky to save your knitting!

Posted by: claudia at December 5, 2003 9:28 AM

Nice fix-it job! I remember being completely awed the first time I saw someone use that technique. I was knitting my first adult sized sweater in the round and found about 5 p stitches several rows back. I couldn't stand the thought of frogging them and went in desperation to my LYS and ended up having a great lesson in how to rip a stitch or two down. Good job, I love using that fix--well, more than frogging several rows of knitting that is!

Posted by: Sharlene at December 5, 2003 10:47 AM

Well done! No matter how long it took, ripping out all that work and starting again would have taken longer and you wouldn't have got to feel so good abut yourself. Leaving it showing would have bugged you forever as well so well done you for fixing it!

Posted by: kerrie at December 5, 2003 10:55 AM

Oh, I would've gladly done it for you. I'm the expert at climbing that darn knit ladder. Try doing it on sock yarn with US 1s. :)

Posted by: Kerstin at December 5, 2003 11:22 AM

Did the patient bleed?

Posted by: Leslie/Nake-id Knits at December 5, 2003 12:07 PM

What a brave girl you are, but it had to be done. It would have bugged you to no end. Looks great, and I love the cafe mocha colorway...yummy...

Posted by: Silvia at December 5, 2003 12:13 PM

Ooh, wow! I usually try to work with just one stitch at a time if I have to ladder down, so I'm really impressed with two at once. I usually have to put a piece down for a bit after a traumatic experience like that. Congratulations on a successful surgery, doctor!

Posted by: Ingrid at December 5, 2003 1:55 PM

Good save! I've done it before with a machine knitting gadget - a double ended latch hook (aka seed stitch tool, http://www.knittinghabit.com/seedstitch.htm). Makes garter and seed stitch corrections a breeze!!!

Posted by: June at December 5, 2003 2:41 PM

after making all these scarves, i've really come to love the sideways method. it's very fast. i'll have to make one for myself. yours look lovely!

Posted by: melissa at December 5, 2003 6:23 PM

Having done this kind of rescue many times, I empathize. I've discovered that one has more control over the yarn if only one column at a time is unraveled. And any initial unevenness in the re-worked pattern evens out with blocking and subsequent washing.

Posted by: Gina at December 9, 2003 12:04 PM