So I picked up my hooded baby cardi for the first time in nearly a week today… and realized that I had, in my rush to finish that one last row to get to a certain point in the pattern, knit the last quarter of a purl row. So I had to tink all of that. And then, when finishing the purl row, I made my usual purl row mistake - droning to the point where I forgot to switch back to knit stitches for the garter stitch border. :doh: :doh:
So what absentminded mistakes do you make?
I do pretty good about mistakes now by holding the pattern mantra in my head (like an inner voice holding the rhythm of the pattern stitch)
…but…being self taught I discovered - 10 years into my knitting that my purls only looked good when I knit in the round because I was looping the working yarn around my right needle the WRONG WAY! Just like writing a new year on a check…it was fixed!
I always use a stitch marker for border stitches, and lace repeats when possible … and any other way that they will help me remember a change or to help me keep track increase or decrease stitches. It has really made a difference in the amount of times I have to go back and fix … especially on borders!
Thanks! That’s a good suggestion. :cheering:
I use stitch markers to mark off sections like this, and I STILL manage to make mistakes like that from time to time. I think it happens to everyone. 
It especially happens to me if it’s a really simple pattern where I don’t have to pay full attention while I’m knitting
have stopped in middle of a round or row, and when i start again, have been known to knit it the wrong direction, and when realizing this, have had to tink, not so much fun!! linknit41
Inadvertent short rows! :roflhard:
Being a new knitter I don’t have habitual mistakes…It’s all a long string of recovery after another…
Lin, I’ve done that! I didn’t get very far, but still, I was embarrassed, even though it was garter stitch and so no right side or wrong side.
Yes, I now have my “Hey, knit here!” stitch marker for my purl rows back in place. I also - somehow - managed to (again) knit 10 or 15 purl stitches, but this time it was at the beginning of a nearly 100-stitch row and I only noticed it two rows later, so I picked down two rows and re-wove them, one by one. I wasn’t going to tink 200 stitches!
I did leave one stitch (under the arm) wrong - I don’t know if this superstition applies to knitting… My sister who quilts has one (deliberate) error in each quilt. It’s something about you can’t give a perfect handmade gift, or the fairies get jealous. Or it’s bad luck. Or something.
My sister who quilts has one (deliberate) error in each quilt. It’s something about you can’t give a perfect handmade gift, or the fairies get jealous. Or it’s bad luck. Or something.
I think it’s the Amish (and also Middle Eastern) belief that only God can make something absolutely perfect. So the Amish, Mennonites, and most of the Middle Eastern rug makers (Indian too, I think) always have a “mistake” somewhere in the pattern of their quilts, tiled surfaces, etc…
I once had a silk rug from India that had one sprig of flowers in the pattern the wrong color, for that reason.
Ugh!!
So I’m laying out this cardi to measure how much farther I have to go. (Oddly, I’ve had an inch left for the last three times I’ve measured) I noticed one twisted stitch 36 rows down. It’s not a decrease, I still have the same number of stitches, but the V is distorted and there’s a tiny hole. DH says he can’t see it unless I point it out. It’s very noticeable to me, because, well, stockinette stitch. My perfectionist side says “pick down and fix it!” but I suspect it’s tangled with the next stitch over, and it’s 36 flippin’ rows! It’s also right in the middle of the back.
So, would you fix it?
Hey Trish! I had to laugh when I read your post because I just finished reading the Yarn Harlot’s book Casting Off (I think that was the title!) And, in it she talked about the mystery of knitting Black Holes - where you knit and knit and knit and the project doesn’t get any bigger!
Personally, I don’t think I would go back and fix a twisted stitch 36 rows back! If you are giving it away, the definitely don’t fix it because they will never know the difference! But, if you are making it for yourself you will have to ask yourself- Am I going to notice this and get mad everytime I try to wear the cardi? And, Is it going to take away my enjoyment of the garment? If it is then you should fix it. No use putting in all that work only to be mad everytime you look at the finished product!!
Hope this helps!!!
Amanda, it’s a baby cardigan for my boss. She’s almost painfully non-domestic (can’t cook, not crafty, etc) and I don’t know that she would even notice. I’m making it because I thought it’d be a quick way to learn sweaters without using expensive yarn. (guilt and I’m giving away my mistakes?)
I’m quite impatient to get this thing off my needles, because the project in my queue calls for the same size needles, and I waaaaant to cast on! Or at least swatch! (Just watch, I won’t make gauge with a size 7 needle - my 6s and 8s are empty right now) My only complaint about that one is - whhhy do I have to fall in love with cardigans? Can’t I love a pullover? Ugh, purling!
I’m leaving it! Unless, of course, I finish (another inch plus finishing won’t add more than 6-12 rows, and after 36, what’s the difference?) and washing it (acrylic) makes that little hole ginormous.
If the hole gets bigger (probably won’t) take a piece of yarn about 6" and close it up, weaving in the ends.
Let me just encourage you that it DOES get better!
And not only that, as you learn to “recover,” you’re learning skills that will make you a better knitter!
[QUOTE=TrishL1975;1201661]Lin, I’ve done that! I didn’t get very far, but still, I was embarrassed, even though it was garter stitch and so no right side or wrong side.
Yes, I now have my “Hey, knit here!” stitch marker for my purl rows back in place. I also - somehow - managed to (again) knit 10 or 15 purl stitches, but this time it was at the beginning of a nearly 100-stitch row and I only noticed it two rows later, so I [B]picked down two rows and re-wove them, one by one. [/B] I wasn’t going to [I][B]tink [/B][/I]200 stitches!
QUOTE]
Ok I am known to get easily distracted in a nano second and forget my next stitch so I spend alot of time trying to figur it out espesially with ribbing but what does it mean to “pick down and re-wove” and “tink”:whoosh:
Pick down and rewove is another term for drop the sts down and pick them back up the right way. Tink is knit spelled backwards, aka unknit stitches.
Could an “oops” like this be hidden with a duplicate stitch or embrodery design?
You can then think of it as an [B]opportunity[/B] to embelish and improve rather thabn a “mistake.”
This thread reminds me of another reason computer programmers call errors in our programs, “bugs.” They [B]hide[/B] and become visible only later when greater effort is required to remove them.
–Jack