I'm back again for another Wednesday Yarn Along with Ginny.
Here is a question for some of you more experienced knitters: how do you handle ripping back rows on a lace pattern? I'm working on the fairly simple February Lady Sweater for the third time, and I just noticed a goof about 10 rows back. The last time I tried to rip back the gull lace pattern, I got so lost trying to get the pattern back on the needles that I ended up casting on all over again. Not fun. I did that twice. And I fear that if I can't fix matters this time around, I will be giving up altogether on that beautiful sweater and throwing in the towel with lace henceforth. And I really want to be able to knit lace! Help me!
I was happy to put the FLS aside for a bit in order to knit up some doll clothes for Gemma's boy baby doll. Gem's birthday is coming up, and William, the doll, being a boy, is a bit short in the wardrobe department. I am knitting a cardigan, booties and hat from some yarn I dyed myself with Kool Aid, and I still need to sew up a couple of pairs of pants and tops. I really am not good with tops. He's one of those American Girl Bitty Baby dolls purchased on eBay, so if you have a good pattern for any doll cloths for one, let me know! Dress patterns abound, but patterns for cute boy outfits like those made for Waldorf dolls are harder to come by.
As for my reading, I haven't been doing much of it, but I am still trying to read a little of The Power and the Glory in bed every night, and I am really enjoying it. It's so very different a book from the last thing I read (a real page-turner by Michael O'Brien), but I do like it very much. Not having grown up Catholic, I am trying to catch up a little on Catholic authors.
I am hoping to do a little blog-hopping and see what you all are up to this week...hopefully I can show you the completed doll outfit on the next Yarn Along...
The little cardi looks cute for the doll.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest way I find to sort out a lace error is to work out where the repeat should be and work with those stitches, ie if there are obvious markers in the pattern then you will most likely need all the stitches of a pattern repeat to do a correction depending on where the error is. If the pattern is charted it should be easy to determine how many stitches either side of the error are affected.
Hope that makes some kind of sense.
Hello Nadja,
ReplyDeleteI saw your sweater over on yarn along.
I thought you must have a tiny baby...this is cute. Mind you when my daughter was born she was so tiny that dolls dresses fitted her!
I've been doing a lot of unravelling recently of a simple lace shawl and found myself going right back to the beginning. Now if I notice something not quite right I just unravel each row one at a time. Working from one needle to the next. It takes time but takes less than beginning all over again.
I hope a more experienced knitter can help you with more useful advice. But don't give up you'll be so pleased with yourself when you've completed it.
I look forward to seeing the completed outfit.
Happy knitting
Debby
That doll sweater is adorable. I need to gather some patterns to make some doll stuff for upcoming holidays and birthdays!
ReplyDeleteWell - the best thing to do is use the life lines, which I usually forget. Since you are past that, I would frog back till you get to a row that is only knits, or with very few yarn overs. You may want to look on You Tube. They sometimes have great hints on things like that. Wish I could be more helpful!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute little sweater! I have been experimenting with dyeing yarn with food colours, too.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any advice on pulling back - I'm not brave enough to rip back, I knit backwards if it's a couple of rows but I'm not confident enough to do anything major. In fact, this is one of my fears with doing larger projects! I hope you get it sorted x
So glad for the advice! If nothing else, it is giving me the courage to not abandon all hope! I may just back up a row at a time, maybe doing only one a day so as not to get overwhelmed and discouraged. In the meantime, I will look for something else to knit (which is always exciting!)
ReplyDeleteI believe Knitpicks had a video instruction about doing a “lifeline” in knitting lace...you knit every ten rows or something a piece of small thread or something with the row, that way if you have to pull it out, the stitches will remain on your “lifeline” . Go check out knitpicks, under videos....I’m sure there is something there far better than my pitiful rendition! :)
ReplyDeleteI had to put markers in every repeat or two of the lace and CONSTANTLY check the stitch counts were correct. That doesn't solve your ripping back problem, but it might help going forward.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a LYS, you could call and find out if they'd help rip back. One of the shops here will offer one-on-one help for a very low price IMO (I think it's like $10/hour?) and that might be just the little bit of help to get you back on track.