Jeepers... munged up the baby blanket *sigh*

Tntgin4118 · 07-22-2012, 12:39 PM

Yeah, I did. I managed to make a mess of the baby blanket I've been working on for awhile. I think it will probably take me several hours to undo to the mistake and reknit the rows I need to pull out. I failed to rerun my lifesaver line often enough and my unskilled un-knitting and un-purling stitch by stitich is creating an even bigger mess. I'll write this one down as a "lesson-harshly-learned" and try not to make the mistake on the lifeline again.

I'm heading over to the How-To section to see if there are instructions for threading a lifeline after the fact on a known good row.

Soooo frustrated with myself!

-Ginger

suzeeq · 07-22-2012, 05:58 PM

Yes, I believe there is a video for putting in a lifeline after the fact. I don't use them - what I do is rip back all the rows until the one above the one I need to fix, then put the sts back on the needle as I take out the last row stitch by stitch. It doesn't matter if the sts are turned when you do this, just get them on the needle. Then when you go to redo it, knit or purl into the leg that's closest to the needle tip and they won't be twisted. Good luck with whatever you do.

Antares · 07-22-2012, 06:14 PM

Oy! I hate it when that happens. It really makes your lifelines kinda useless if you don't put them in regularly--ask me how I know!!!

So sorry to hear you're in the frog pond with this project! I hope you get back on track soon.

By the way, when I'm on the first page of the forum, your post title reads, "Jeepers... munged up the baby" (and then you can't see the rest). So glad THAT wasn't the case!

Tntgin4118 · 07-22-2012, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by Antares

By the way, when I'm on the first page of the forum, your post title reads, "Jeepers... munged up the baby" (and then you can't see the rest). So glad THAT wasn't the case!

LOL, well that certainly puts it in perspective. It really could be worse

salmonmac · 07-22-2012, 08:29 PM

Oh, whew, now that I know the baby's ok, a little frogging doesn't seem so bad. The video fo inserting a needle in the destination row works really well, especially with a needle several sizes smaller. It's painful to frong back, but I always think the reknitting part goes faster than I'd imagined. Good luck with it and show us the finished blanket if you can. Be fun to see it.

Tntgin4118 · 07-22-2012, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by salmonmac

Oh, whew, now that I know the baby's ok, a little frogging doesn't seem so bad. The video fo inserting a needle in the destination row works really well, especially with a needle several sizes smaller. It's painful to frong back, but I always think the reknitting part goes faster than I'd imagined. Good luck with it and show us the finished blanket if you can. Be fun to see it.

Working through inserting the smaller needle a few rows back. It's going very slowly. This is a ribbed pattern (K3, P3) so fighting the purls to catch the correct loop is giving me a true lesson in reading my stitches. All in all, this is good experience for building my sklls. It's not a GOOD experience, but definitely a part of the journey.

-Ginger

suzeeq · 07-22-2012, 11:34 PM

It may be easier if you just get the stitch on the needle, and don't worry how it's turned. Then when you reknit them, knit or purl into the leg that's closest to the tip of the needle.

Antares · 07-23-2012, 01:14 AM

Whenever I rip something back, I generally concentrate first and foremost on getting the live stitches back onto a needle--right way, wrong way doesn't matter. I also try very hard not to split the yarn as I do this.

Then once all the live stitches are on the needle, I go back and orient them correctly right before I knit them. I use this method rather than Sue's excellent recommendation of knitting into the side that's closest to the needle tip because I still get confused about which way the stitch should "sit" on the needle. Plus, it's very likely that I have twisted the stitch even more than normal.

Tntgin4118 · 07-23-2012, 05:08 AM

Thanks for the support and great ideas. It was PAINFUL

and took two tries before I was able to get a straight row on the smaller needle. There are about 170 stitches to a row so it was tough to read and catch the right loop all the way across! I ended up frogging about 4 or 5 rows. As slow as I am, that's probably a couple of hours to get back to where I was. Beats the heck out of frogging the whole thing and starting over, for sure.

Lifeline is now in place and all the stitches have been knit back onto the correct size needle.

I learned a lot and DH learned that even nice Southern Ladies can teach an old sailor a thing or two about creative use of language

LESSON: Knitting is much like working with a computer. You can get yourself into really frustrating situations if you don't set a "restore point". Never knit further from your lifeline than you're prepared to frog.

-Ginger
Living life with an attitude of gratitude.

fatoldladyinpjs · 07-23-2012, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by Antares

Whenever I rip something back, I generally concentrate first and foremost on getting the live stitches back onto a needle--right way, wrong way doesn't matter. I also try very hard not to split the yarn as I do this.

Then once all the live stitches are on the needle, I go back and orient them correctly right before I knit them. I use this method rather than Sue's excellent recommendation of knitting into the side that's closest to the needle tip because I still get confused about which way the stitch should "sit" on the needle. Plus, it's very likely that I have twisted the stitch even more than normal.

I get mine on the needle any way I can also. I switch the orientation as I knit it. Do pay close attention to the stitches, though. I've had it happen where the yarn split. I only got part of the stitch back on the needle and a little nubby sticking out, which I had to go back and fix later. What a pain!