Super Newbie (as in clueless!)

[GrumpyGramma]

There's a video for putting in lifelines here, I think it's on the Tips page. It can be useful even a nonlacey project too.

Oh, yes! I tend to knit two at a time, whether socks, sweater fronts or sleeves, anything I will need two of. If I have to frog, it's nice to easily end up the same length for starting up again.

[mojo11]

Awesome! I'll have to check it out. I was doing (what looked like) a simple cowl/hood for my daughter in common law for Christmas not long ago and could have definitely used this advice! It was about as simple -- in theory -- as you could get. CO 50, join in round. Then *YO, k2tog* until you run out of yarn or patience and BO. It made this very cool spiral pattern that I figure she'll love, plus I got some really NICE bulky superwash Merino from a local spinner/dyer/sheep rancher that was like... butter. And the pattern looked SO SIMPLE!

D'ya know what happens if you miss a YO in a pattern like that? I didn't. But I found out. Even more insidious, it's so subtle that if you don't catch it right away you might not notice it until you're several rounds (or inches!) further along. And this? Is why I say "frog" is the cleaned up version of what you're saying to yourself when you realize you're going to have to yank out a lot of hard-won progress. I was lucky. I had Wendy to bail me out. But it sure woulda been nice to have that lifeline in there...

[suzeeq]

If you can catch the missed yo on the next row or two, you can just pick up the loop of yarn where it should have gone and now you have a yo. But if it's further back... it's a definite oopsy.

[mojo11]

If you can catch the missed yo on the next row or two, you can just pick up the loop of yarn where it should have gone and now you have a yo. But if it's further back... it's a definite oopsy.

Well in this case, since it was knit in the round the effect was that it reversed the direction of the spiral. Don't ask me how that happened, but there you go. Took several rounds before I noticed it, so...

Then there was the shawl I made for my mother that was yet another "This looks easy" pattern. CO5, then YO one stitch after the first and one before the last and one on either side of the center stitch. So the first row is k1,YO,k1,YO,k1,YO,k1,YO,k1 the second is k1,YO,k2,YO,k1,YO,k2,YO,k1 and so forth. This is easy, right? Sure it is. Except somewhere in the middle when I got to the YO-k1-YO, I managed to do a YO, YO, k1, YO (or maybe YO,k1,YO,YO, it was garter stitch so it could have been either way). Didn't see THIS until the thing was finished and blocked and I was checking for ends I might've missed. Ummm... yeah, I did that on PURPOSE! the "intentional flaw" dodge, rules here. :sigh:

[Antares]

If everything we knit were perfect, then our creations would be automated, boring, and just like all the commercially created garments out there.

Those "design flaws" are what make art art. It's hand-created, it's time-consuming, it's imperfect in a beautiful way. Those who appreciate such things are deserving of our most cherished knitted and crocheted items. Those who don't, well, THHHHPPPPPPPTTTT on them. They can just go buy themselves something at Nordstroms!

[suzeeq]

So the first row is k1,YO,k1,YO,k1,YO,k1,YO,k1 the second is k1,YO,k2,YO,k1,YO,k2,YO,k1 and so forth.

The next inc row would acutually be k, yo k3, yo K1, yo K3, yo, k1. With this type of pattern, it's easier to mark the center K1 so you yo before and after it, then 1 stitch each end just inside the edge stitches. That way you can see the center stitch with the YOs on each side of it. After a while you might not even need the markers.

It takes a little practice to get it all together, in the meanwhile we can just practice our creativity...

[mojo11]

The next inc row would acutually be k, yo k3, yo K1, yo K3, yo, k1. With this type of pattern, it's easier to mark the center K1 so you yo before and after it, then 1 stitch each end just inside the edge stitches. That way you can see the center stitch with the YOs on each side of it. After a while you might not even need the markers.

It takes a little practice to get it all together, in the meanwhile we can just practice our creativity...

My problem wasn't that I didn't know where the center was (I had a marker on the center stitch -- otherwise we'd have been looking at Frankenshawl), it was that I yo-yo'ed where I should've yo'ed. A momentary distraction maybe... or maybe I just forgot I'd already done that bit. Or maybe it was one of those "accidental yo's" I'm have such a talent for (but usually see at the time). It didn't help that the pattern used big, open stitches even in the knitted stitches (US 17 needles, when you'd typically use... maybe US 11s or even 10s). Ah well. It's a "feature", and probably I'll be the only one who's ever really bothered by it.

[salmonmac]

Ah, yes, the accidentat yo yo. Like the accidental yo, once dropped (so you don'at have an extra stitch) it usually evens out as it works its way into the stitches on either side along the row. I don't think it'll be all that noticeable (except perhaps, to your knitting eye).

[mojo11]

Ah, yes, the accidentat yo yo. Like the accidental yo, once dropped (so you don'at have an extra stitch) it usually evens out as it works its way into the stitches on either side along the row. I don't think it'll be all that noticeable (except perhaps, to your knitting eye).

Well... one can hope. Doesn't really matter 'cause the thing is done now, and I ain't redoing it. The fact that neither Wendy nor I noticed it until it was finished, washed, blocked and I was checking for missed loose ends suggests that... well, I may be the only one who knows it's there. And unless I point it OUT...

[suzeeq]

The fact that neither Wendy nor I noticed it until it was finished, washed, blocked and I was checking for missed loose ends suggests that... well, I may be the only one who knows it's there. And unless I point it OUT...

Exactly. Nonknitters wouldn't know a mistake and even knitters have a hard time finding them in other people's work.