Aagh. Did I just ruin my project? I need to reknit part of a project (too-tight ribbing on a mitten) and without thinking figured I’d just cut the ribbing off and pick up the loops and knit from there down, only to realize that I’ve now created a zillion ends. (I’m usually not this stupid, I swear.)
I know it’s possible to cut & reknit. Can anyone point me to a book or site for help? A quick Google search didn’t turn up anything helpful. Thanks a million.
S.K.
When you use the steeking technique for a sweater you have to cut into the knitting. I had hoped to find a video regarding this in the fixing mistakes section, but I don’t see it. I think the best thing for you to do is to unravel as much of the loose ends as you can until you have a row / round of all stitches. If this unnerves you, place any live stitches you come to on a dpn or stitch holder and remove them as needed to frog back until you get a solid row going.
Steeking is very different from what you are doing. When you cut and reknit, you could snip a single stitch, and then unravel it sideways along the row, pulling open stitch after stitch.
Or you could cut around, so each stitch gets cut into two halves (basically). That’s what you have done yeah?
Gently pluck at all those little fluffy cut bits so they are out of the way.
You will be left with loops - these are the live stitches. Put them back on your needle (videos here I imagine). Ready to go - just attach a new strand!
You should be able to Google for tutorials on picking up stitches etc. Also check out the video here on a destination row - kind of the same.
Sometimes it’s easier to pick up a row as shown in the video before you cut a couple of rows above/unravel - maybe for the other mitten? (if you’ve done it already)
[I]Or you could cut around, so each stitch gets cut into two halves (basically). That’s what you have done yeah?[/I]
Yeah.
I was actually bright enough to slide needles into the row I want to keep before cutting. But now that I’ve read your reply, I think I’m okay. I was picturing having dozens of threads that could be pulled and create runs, but I’m now realizing that isn’t the case.
My first instinct that I would just be left with a row of live stitches was right – I freaked out because a non-knitter thought I was crazy. Thanks for setting me straight.
(Still, I wish I hadn’t been so lazy and had just pulled out the stitches.)
Actually, cutting was a good thing to do because trying to unravel ribbing from the cast-on edge will make you :hair: