Experience is knowing how to fix mistakes quickly!

Happy Monday everyone!

This weeks subject kind of wrote itself week, after I noticed A MISTAKE in my latest project...  Groan...

We all make them.  I'm sure when I was a novice knitter I thought experienced knitters didn't make mistakes...  well it is true that you've been there and dome that enough to avoid quite as many of them, but we all still have moments of distraction and with experience I've learnt as much about correcting or getting around mistakes as I have about avoiding them.

So todays mistake wasn't even a big mistake... it was MUCH WORSE!

It was a small, wee, almost tiny mistake right at the beginning, when I was literally 5 rows from casting off!... Groan indeed...

Of course I had a choice - I could leave it?  But what would that give me?  Well in the words of Confucius... A true mistake...

So I bit the bullet and decided I wouldn't be happy unless I corrected it.

But as there was also no way I was going to unravel 80% of the capelet/cowl and start from scratch, the subject of todays blog was born and here I am to share with you how I go about fixing my mistakes!

The mistake...

Big mistakes can some times be easier to correct, as you'll tend to spot them fairly quickly - this mistake however was a simple, single dropped stitch.

Unfortunately it was also right in the middle of seamless, simple and beautiful stocking stitch and about 1/3 in to the almost finished item.

The fix...

Firstly as a dropped stitch, I knew I could correct this without unpicking the whole piece.   The following rows had the correct stitch numbers and therefore I knew that the wool was there to reconstruct this one column without causing problems with the tension.

The first job was to identify the individual columns to unpick.  I used a needle as a marker to keep me on track.  

In this piece, the single stocking stitch column culminated in 20 or so rows of simple 2 stitch cable.  So t keep the integrity of the cable pattern I needed to start by unpicking both columns which formed this pattern.

The key here is not to loose any stitches you don't want to unravel, so make sure there are pushed well back on your primary needles.

To ensure the tension of the adjoining stitches was kept in tact, I used a (smaller) needle to gently undo the column(s) of stitches while firmly holding the stitches to each side between my thumb and forefinger.

At the end of my "pattern" I secured the "spare" stitch which made up my cable and continued to unpick just the column with the error, until I reached the row with the slip stitch.

We now need to correct the original error and repair the column.

For a single row I find the repair much easier and quicker using a crochet hook (smaller than the original needle size, so as not to effect tension of adjoining stitches).

Pick up the loop, lay over the yarn from the next row and gently draw through the loop (drawing yarn from front to back for knit stitches).  Continuing in this manner up the column.

Be careful to regularly check that you have picked up every row of yarn and that these have not become crossed - I find it easy to miss one as they can 'hide' behind the completed rows.

Be careful also to ensure you replicate the correct stitches.  My pattern had a single purl row just before the cable pattern and therefore I was required to reverse the crochet stitch taking the yarn front to back through this stitch to replicate the purl row.

When I reached the cable pattern I brought my two stitches back together on a double pointed needle and knit in pattern up the remainder of the column.

They key here is not to worry too much about the tension of your corrected column, but to ensure you maintain the integrity of the tension of the adjoining columns.

As I used a smaller needle you can see here => that there is a slight gap (showing as a line) on one side of the corrected stitches (the needle marks the location of the original dropped stitch).

Once you complete your corrected columns, return your loops to the original needles and knit along the row a dozen or so stitches before using your fingers/hook or whatever you have, to gently work out the tension of the corrected rows.   Hopefully leaving you with a seamless piece of knitting!

I won't pretend that correcting errors early in your knitting isn't very fiddly.  But it is much quicker than unravelling the whole items and immensely worthwhile when you have a flawless finished piece!

What is your best tip for correcting mistakes in your work?

Have a great week.  Hopefully free of too many annoying mistakes ;)

Lisa @ ElvieWith Love.