The sock, two days ago
I decide to set aside my knitting for a moment to make some breakfast. But somehow, as I’m putting it down, I manage to slip one of the three bamboo needles right out of all its stitches. It wasn’t one of the gusset needles either, which hold the simple stocking stitch stitches. No. It was the other one. The one that holds twice as many stitches in the fancy slipped stitch pattern. In other words, it was the critical, complicated one.
I looked at the stock. Stitches were poking out in all directions. There were purls and knits and slipped stitches. And some of the slipped stitches were racing like slippery snakes down the ladders of my rows.
In the olden days, I would have put aside the sock and taken it to work and asked my knitting guru, Penelope, to fix it. And she would have patiently figured it out and fixed it for me. (I could never watch the actual surgery, even though she advised me to. It was too distressing.)
But I don’t work there anymore, and neither does she. I am guru-less.
So, as I looked at my sock with its guts spilling out in all directions, I realized the most important thing to do is step away from the sock. Don’t panic. Find a small crochet cook. Take deep breaths. Don’t rush. Attitude is everything.
The sock, after my well-intentioned but clumsy efforts to save it
I think I have to rip a bunch of rows out now, but I fear I’ll have the same problem at that point. The stitches will be poking out in all directions and I’ll just end up chasing the slipped stitches further down the sock.
So now I’m going to put it aside and have some breakfast and decorate my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree that I picked up at the Parkdale Market for $10 yesterday. I’m hoping that by the time I get back, one of you will have proposed a simple yet brilliant solution to my unraveling sock problem.
I’m not sure how it would work in knitting but in shop everything I tried to make turned into an ashtray no matter what it started out as, spice rack, footstool, whatever.
Not very convenient to have a house full of wooden ashtrays.
I think it was very wise of you to step away from the project.
Yes, it is wise to step away from the yarn when a problem occurs! When you are calm again, try this:
Once you have all (or most) of the stitches back on the needle, and do this any which way you can, then TINK – unknit the stitches one at a time, carefully inserting the left needle into each stitch in the correct spot so that when you slip the stitch off the right needle, that one stitch is unknit. You will be able to pick up any stitches that you missed and the unknit stitches should be aligned correctly.
This will take a while, but after a round (or two), everything should be back to normal. Good luck!
You wouldn’t happen to have Penelope’s home phone number anywhere, would you? Or address? You know, so you could mail it to her with a blank cheque and beg her to save it/you? Just kidding!
OMG Abby! THANK YOU! I am always ripping out projects because of this sort of thing (dpn and a two yr old and a cat make for this scenario A LOT!) Badly repaired slipped stitches are a hallmark of my knitting (which explains why I like varigated homespun so much…and felting…they both provide a great cover for my mistakes!)
Abby is right, TINKing is probably the best solution. It’s time consuming, but in the end its best. Sometimes, you can also slip a spare needle through the stitches a few rows dow then pull out the top needle and rip back until you reach the spare needle. With a sock you’d need to do it on all sides, and it depends on how complicated the pattern is, sometime you can’t get the needle through the stitches right. I also recommend picking the stitches up with a smaller needle, the reknit them on the regular needle
When you’re finished with that crochet cook, can you ask him/her to knit me some li’l appetizers? We coyotes are all about the appetizers…
lol, crochet cook. I’d love some knit appetizers and hoer d’oeuvres (sp?)
zoom, problem solving when it comes to knitting is ridiculously hard and people who can do it amaze me. I used to knit back in the day and I could never fix something if I fucked it up.
-JM
Good luck! I have a horrible time fixing socks when I screw up. I can tink for awhile but if I have to go back very far I inevitably mess something up rip the whole sock out in disgust.
well…I could probably do sock surgery for you….
Yes, Zoom, the tinking is a good idea; you can learn the pattern by watching carefully as you go. Also, slipping a smaller-sized needle into the first good row of sts you can find below the messed up area will stop the laddering.
One more hint: don’t worry overmuch about twisted stitches on your needle at this point. It’s more important that they’re on the needle at all and in approximately the right order. As you knit them up, watch carefully, and if a stitch is twisted, knit through the correct leg even if it’s in the back; if the stitch is twisted twice (not likely unless you were mega squared stressed while picking it up), let it off the needle, untwist, and put it back on.
You will be OK. This is an opportunity to improve your knitted fabric reading skills!
Good light and a magnifying viewer might be helpful! LOL Please let us know how it turns out.
I’m proud of you Zoom. Being brave enough to re-face the sock with dropped stitches and try again is awesome. It may sound crazy but learning how to unknit/tink a project is equally important in order to pick up dropped stitches or fix mistakes.
BTW, your knitted sock and yarn are both lovely.
Oh, thanks so much for this! I knew I could count on you. I still haven’t tackled the sock. I’m debating whether or not to have a glass of wine first.
I can tink stocking stitch but I’m not so sure about this stuff. I’ll try. I also like the idea of slipping a needle through a healthy row a few rows back. Can I do a retroactive lifeline? Thread a sewing needle and thread through a healthy row, and then transfer it to a knitting needle after?
I’m going to try to fix it myself, because I do realize it’s a critical skill, but if I fail utterly, I’m calling in the Big Guns. Carmen.
Coyote and JM – you can see what the crochet cook’s been cooking up over here: Skymagenta. (Just goes to show you truth is stranger than typos.)
I find sitting at a table with a good light and magnifying glasses helps a lot. Good luck!
http://fleeglesblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/food-knit.html
Scroll down to look at the knitted fish. It’s amazing!
Good luck with the sock, Abby gives good advice. I’m one of those strange people who actually enjoy tinking back to unravel errors. It’s good for the brain.
I don’t know about the TINKing option, but I just bought 8 pairs of sports socks at WalMart for $10. I went really early in the morning, so the whole thing only took me about 5 minutes. There was a choice of black or white. They’re very comfortable.
Yeah, you’re on your own as far as I am concerned, as I have never knitted. But if Carmen offers, I would jump at it! She’s the knitting bomb!
I think s retroactive lifeline would work, and probably easier than trying to use a knitting needle
You’re OK. Just take a deep breath and slowly TINK it back. Just undo each round, stitch by stitch until you reach a row that is intact. Don’t worry that you might currently have twisted stitches or dropped ones. You will catch them up. It will be slow going and you might have to take a break from time to time. Just be gently with it until you are caught up.
It happens to the best of us….
By the way, if you ever need help from someone feel free to drop by the store and either Em or I will gladly help you (even if the yarn isn’t from us.) Picking up dropped stitches is something we can do fairly easily!
Much love this holiday!