Procrastination or a Stitch in Time. . .
So, I am rushing to finish a lace scarf/stole for Mother's Day. I was trying an experiment and knitting it in the round with the plan to drop stitches at the end to make the fringe. Perhaps lace is too strong a word -- it is stockinette, sock yarn, and size 9 needles. And it was taking me twenty minutes to complete one round so I had put in at least 11 hours when --- a stitch was caught and pulled out. We are not talking a small pull we are talking feet of yarn, my scarf looked like an open-ended drawstring bag. "Don't panic," I thought. "You can fix this."
No, I couldn't. I tried pulling what I thought was the errant thread at a further point to help (!!!) the process but it was a different thread so now I had two hideous pulls. And the part that I had un-pursed looked like crap anyway so I decided to let it go. I haven't frogged it yet but that's its future.
I have had the yarn (3 balls of expensive Touch Me Due) for the Minimum Scarf from The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville (love that book) forever. I had started it with two balls thinking I would just make it shorter than the pattern (which calls for four), bought a third when I realized it would be way too short, then frogged it after finishing one ball which showed me it would still be too short with three.
I cast-on 24 rather than the 32 called for (3/4 stitches for 3/4 the yarn so hopefully) and have been knitting like mad since last night. I've put in around three hours and have over 15 inches (the final length should be close to 39 inches) so I still have hope I can mail it off to my mother in time. And I received the fun scarf pin I purchased for Mother this weekend (all the way from Canada) so perhaps the stars are in alignment. I do have to felt the scarf after it is done which means a laundromat for me but I am feeling strong.
Comments
if you just dropped one stitch (and if it's just stockinette) why not drop every other stitch or every 4th stitch... or some sort of "pattern" - it'll unravel down and might look really beautiful... if you think you can still fix it, try using a latchook - it's awesome for picking up dropped stitches -
Unfortunately I didn't just drop a stitch -- a single loop from near the beginning must have become attached to me somehow and I walked away, blithely pulling that loop out further and further until the scarf was cinched up tight and then I felt the tug!
I'll have to google latchook. It sounds like it would be a good tool for me to have (although, of course, I hope I never do this particular mistake again). Thanks for the suggestion.
I checked out your blog -- great stuff. And you are so lucky to be near Knit Cafe, I love her book. And I feel your pain regarding unraveling of a project that took so much time. But I agree -- if it isn't right it will cause you more pain to see it in its never-used state.