Broken cord...guess I'm frogging. AARRGGHHH!

#1

B[COLOR=“Blue”]LEEP BLEEP BLEEP[/COLOR]

So I’m knitting along on a top down sweater, 350 stitches on the needles, and the blue cord on my interchangeable needles snaps. They might send me a new one, I’ve let the company know that it happened. I think changing to different needles at this point wouldn’t work out very well. I have another sweater, waiting for a fitting, started with needles from the same set. I’m not a happy camper. :wall: :mad: :grrr: :evil:

On the bright side, Crossed Fingers I ordered the comby set from Webs. When they arrive I’ll find out if I like any of them. I’m sure they’ll be better than what I’ve been using. After giving them all a test drive I can decide what I want to order so I have decent needles to work with.
[I][COLOR=“Red”]
What would you do, just go ahead and frog it all?[/COLOR][/I] I’m going to let it all sit a while before I make up my mind and start ripping.

B[COLOR=“Blue”]LEEP BLEEP BLEEP[/COLOR]

#2

Wait! I’m confused. The cord on your needles broke, right? But there’s nothing wrong with the sweater itself, correct? Well, okay, except maybe for some dropped stitches?

So why not grab a darning needle and a long piece of yarn and string all your stitches on that? Then when you get the new needles (and if they pass muster), you can slip the stitches onto your new needles and take off again.

I most definitely wouldn’t frog it, though, just because of a problem with the needles (which can be replaced). Now if you’d screwed up the pattern or had lots of incorrect stitches, then, yes, frogging it might be in order.

At any rate, I’m sorry to hear about your frustrating experience!!

#3

Glad I let it all sit awhile. My gauge will be different with different needles. If I get the new cable, I can just pick up where I left off, you’re right, Antares. There weren’t that many stitches that were loose and I was able to pick them up and actually finished the current row. Right now they’re all on the broken cord awaiting a solution to my problem.

I knew another knitter would understand the frustration, thank you.

#4

What kind of needles? If you get the same ones it shouldn’t be a problem.

#5

They’re sending me another cord. I’ll be able to finish … I hope … with the same needles. It’s Denise needles. (I hesitated to use the brand name, don’t want to bash them, they at least are sending a replacement of the free part they sent me to take care of a previous problem.) I look forward to trying the Knitter’s Pride needles in their comby kit. I even ordered a Cubics circular to try it out.

#6

No, don’t rip it all out. Just put the sts on a smaller needle or yarn to hold what you’ve got. You may find you have another needle the same size to keep going with, or you may want to wait until you have the replacement.

#7

Thanks. Yeah, it’s waiting for the replacement piece. I think I needed to take a deep breath. :aww:

#8

AFter reading all the post I agree with Atares and Suzeeq and would do what they said…Glad you took a deep breath and decided not to frogg it…that would be such a waste of time…hang in there the cord will be there soon…

#9

All needles have occasional problems. I have a few friends with the high end expensive Signature needles and those needles aren’t perfect either. I think knitting is kind of hard on them…we jerk them through the knitting, bend them around tight curves, twist them constantly… it’s no wonder things happen occasionally. :wink: Glad they are sending you a replacement. KP is good about that, too.

#10

:teehee: Are you implying that we abuse our toys…I mean tools? :thumbsup: Yeah, I’ve been thinking that a thinner cord will be less likely to stress the connection. I’ll see when I have the other needles to try out. I intend to put them to a strenuous test before buying a complete set. I considered various ways of lessening the stress at the connection to the tip in my right hand but haven’t come up with anything that works well. With a thinner cord, I think that a loop method will work.

Every cloud has a silver lining? cloud9 I decided to try some different stitch patterns making wash cloths or coasters. By the time I get back to the sweater I should be in a much better frame of mind. :stuck_out_tongue:

#11

I do a couple things to create less stress on my toys…I mean tools. :lol:

  1. I don’t yank on the needle to pull the needle and cable through the stitches. I grab the cable below the join and pull.

  2. When I put the needles on my cable I put the key in the hole and always hold it on the metal parts so I’m careful not to twist the cable.

  3. If I’m doing magic loop I prefer to have a long enough cable so it’s not bent close the join. So it actually loops.

I haven’t had a problem with my needles and cables in a long time now that I take care of them. I’m not implying that you aren’t handling yours correctly either. Sometimes freak things happen that we have no control over. :teehee:

#12

I’ve been paying attention to how I do things, I try not to yank and to pull them gently when I do pull. The problem with what I’ve been using seems to be that because of the way the cord and needle tip are connected, just holding them stresses the end of the cord and is what caused it to break. I end up with a lot of stitches just at the join, otherwise I have to move everything over about every 5 or 6 stitches. There may not be a lot of difference with a thinner cable but I think the stitches should slide more easily. I knit Continental and that may be part of it, I’ve been practicing the English style but just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I thought that maybe if I could learn English I would hold the needles differently. So far it’s looking like a lost cause, I just can’t manage purls yet.

#13

When I do magic loop, about half the time I slip a stitch marker at the beginning of each half of the round to make it easier to fish the loop out when it goes back into the stitches (as when trying on an incomplete sock for example, or when pulling the knitting back from the needles to store in my bag). It seems easier that way to me to just deal with the two stitch markers every row than to count stitches to half again and dig my fat fingers between the stitches to grab onto the cord.

However, I find that when done with one side and switching to the other I also developed the habit of pulling on the convenient handle of the stitch holder on the other end to help me pull the needle through the stitches (until the back end of the needle is into the stitches far enough to push from the pointy part).

What you write here makes me think I may be doing premature damage to my cord with this method now.

Should I be more careful pulling the cord this way? Is the stitch marker “handle” putting too much stress on a small part of the cord than is good for it?

#14

Good questions, lenaznap. Thanks for asking them, I want to know too.

#15

I’m so glad you didn’t have to frog your piece! But oy vey! That cable… :eyes:

Just a thought on English purl that might work for you: after you wrap the yarn, keep the needles touching and slide the LH tip over the RH one as you work the stitch off. The working yarn is trapped between the needles and can’t go anywhere but onto the RH one.

This helps me keep the stitch from coming undone as I move it to the RH needle.

Hope this helps!

#16

keep the needles touching and slide the LH tip over the RH one as you work the stitch off

Hey, I actually managed a whole row of purls–10 sts!! Thanks for the tip, I’m trying it out, maybe it will help me too. Working with my right hand to wrap the yarn is just feeling extremely awkward and tensioning the yarn is really hard. I’m not sure I can ever get comfortable with it. Still, I think if I can manage to get to the point where I can fairly confidently knit this way, it’s a good idea.

#17

It may ease your mind a little to know you don’t ha ve to absolutely have half the sts in the front and half in the back. ML works fine if they’re not an equal number or if they’re 1/3, 2/3.

When I ML, I don’t finish all the sts on the L needle before looping. I knit to the last 2 or 3, slide the sts around to fill it up and pull the cord through on the L side, then loop the R needle. Doing this every few rounds minimizes ladders

#18

I’m not sure what you mean by “stitch marker” and “handle”… :?? I use the little round metal stitch markers so there is no handle to grab…

#19

Oh, I’m so excited now!

[I]Your item was processed through our SPRINGFIELD, MA 01152 facility on February 01, 2012 at 6:52 pm.[/I] per USPS.

My new needles are in the mail.

I feel like a little kid waiting for a new toy. :aww:

I’ll be glad to get the new cable for the old needles but I’m more eager for the new ones. I wonder which will get here first.

#20

I use stitch markers that are little plastic circles similar to these.

Since they are used as stitch markers, the diameter of the circles are larger than the diameter of the needle (so they can be slipped over the needle and slide freely among the stitches).

Since they are larger than the needles themselves, the diameter of the stitch holders are much, [I][B]much[/B][/I] larger than the diameter of the cord between the circular interchangeable needles, and they slide even more easily over the cord than they do over the needles.

In fact, they not only slide over the cord, but hang off of it a little bit between the stitches.

This makes it very easy to grab as a handle to pull the cord from between the stitches (at least easier than reaching between the stitches with my fingers and trying to pull out a loop of cord).

So the round stitch markers are the handle I mean.