Mohair

[amess]

When frogging--just do it gently? Is it reusable? How many times can you frog it before you kill it?

[Ingrid]

Some yarns are indefinitely froggable, and others are more delicate. I haven't used mohair, and I'm sure different brands are different. So treat it gently; and I do know that you should roll mohair up right away unless you want a blob of knots. You can tell by looking at it if its getting frayed. Yarn doesn't get all stretched out or anything from knitting and frogging with it. I think it's more the friction that can damage it. If it looks in tact, you should be ok.

[amess]

Thankyou for all your help. So it's allll ripped out now, and rewound. Should I let it "rest" and restart with a fresh skein (it does look more "used" than the unknit stuff) or go for AGAIN with the same stuff?

[Ingrid]

Since your working with a pattern that will need your full attention until you get into the swing of things, why not start fresh? You can always use the frogged yarn, if you need to, when you've got a hang of it. Probably better from the emotional aspect, too.

[amess]

Ok, sounds good--just add it in at the next yarn change? Providing I make it that far
As far as my stiches being so difficult to k2tog--(I have cast on to two needles to start to keep it loose)--should I try a larger needle size? Or, just try and "loosen up" abit?

[Ingrid]

Even if you change needle size, you're going to still be tight if you're a tight knitter, I imagine. If you have a smaller dpn lying around, you could slip it in the stitches you need to k tog and do it from there. But that would be a pain since you have so many to do in each row.

Do your best to keep your hands and yarn relaxed--don't tug to tighten up any stitches. Let the needles and yarn do the work at determining how tight it should be. You just guide them, if you know what I mean.

[amess]

Thankyou--I'll try again!

[amess]

Oh, one more question. I use the double cast on method--is this considered my first row of knit?

[Ingrid]

Generally not. Cast on and then knit row one. Sometimes it can be counted as a row of stockingette, but not when you have a stitch pattern.

[eggplant]

Hi Amess,

I've been slugging it out with some mohair recently, and in one section I had to frog some stitches 3 times . On the bright side, in the final reknitting, the formerly frogged section looks the same as the rest -- no overuse problems, but I was extremely slow and careful with the frogging (a Zen frogging moment, I guess).

Also, after trying several joining methods, I found the the most "invisible" way to change balls (same color) was to knit with the end of the old strand and the beginning of the new strand together for a few stitches. It hardly shows. I was amazed.