Remember that sweater I am knitting? I seem to be knitting it at a snail’s pace. But lately I’ve been in the mood to knit and have been making good progress. I have been working on the left front piece (the back and two sleeves are finished).
As I approached the transition to shaping the armholes and heading up to the neck I got excited. I find once I hit that point, I get anxious to finish and it’s fun to see myself get closer and closer to the end.
I finally got started on the armholes when I noticed THE MISTAKE.
Do you see it? HINT: Look at the cable pattern near the top.
Here is the mistake circled in case you couldn’t spot it. Instead of an XO pattern, I ended up with a little fish shape.
I briefly entertained the idea of leaving the mistake, but then I realized the pattern has to match the other side of the front, so I would have to make the mistake there as well. Plus, I would always know the mistake was there and it would bother me.
So now I am faced with having to undo my knitting back to the point of the mistake and fixing it. I am not very confident with “un-knitting”, so the task is always slow and tedious. I am not looking forward to it and have been putting it off.
I know I have to “just do it” so I can move forward again.
How do you get moving again when you get stalled on a project, knitting or otherwise?
From Scratch 
It hurts so much when you make a mistake in knitting. To undo all that hard work is painful. I recently made a careless mistake on a scarf I am working on and even though its just a scarf the mistake haunted me. I had to un-knit 6 rows of wuite a complicated knot stitch. I didn’t breathe for an hour while I fixed the mistake. (I recently posted about it on my blog too)
What makes it worth it in the end is the final perfect knit!
You can do it!!!
P.s. I love the xo cable!
Thanks! My first time doing cables – it’s fun!
I am keen to try cables soon…
Yes, it will be worth it in the end to fix it!
I love that cable pattern. It is a pain to unknit and redo, but you’re right that it would bother you to no end. I’m an expert at knitting mistakes. My husband says if I knit as much as I unknit, I’d make twice as many projects. That’s a slight exaggeration, but I do a fair amount of rework. One trick that might work on your sweater is to put a needle or thread a length of yarn through the stitches along the row you want to rip back to. Then you can just unravel things less tediously. The needle or threaded yarn will stop the unraveling. I typically need to undo one or two more rows carefully just to get the twists right, but that’s better than painstakingly unknitting many rows. Let me know if it works.
I have read about that technique but have never tried it; it sounds scary! I think I will try it first in the area above the mistake where it has to be unraveled anyway so I can get a feel for how it works. I will let you know how it works out. Thanks Betsy!
I tried it…it was a little harrowing but it’s done and was definitely quicker than unknitting all those rows. I had trouble getting the needle to stay on one row and I ended up having to undo a few more rows than necessary, but now I am back to a place where I can start knitting again. Whew!
I’m so glad I read this! I usually just bite the bullet and start unraveling, but I will have to try Betsy’s tip next time. I am not advanced enough for a sweater yet, but have moved from potholders to a scarf and dishcloths so I am making progress. The cable stitch looks like a great pattern and one I hope to do at some point. I spend an awful lot of time knitting and ripping out and knitting again though because I hate it when I see a mistake.