Problem with cabled scarf switching sides

#1

I am new to knitting and this is my first project, http://purly.livejournal.com/752485.html
I have almost half a scarf and just realized that the last several rows are wrong-sided. So, the cabling has moved to the back of the scarf and the front of the scarf is now starting to look like the back.
The cabling was going fine until now. It is the most recently knit 2-3 inches of my scarf that are backwards.

I hope I have been able to describe this so you can understand. Any advice is appreciated.

#2

I can’t really give any good advice as I’m relatively new to knitting myself, but I can tell you that in your place, I would simply pick everything backwards until I could fix the mistake. I did something similar once while working on a hat (the cable started going the wrong way), and I had no choice but to take out the stitches until I got to the problem area.

Also, make sure that the right side (front) of the cabling is all knit, not purl because that is what makes it pop out. It sounds like you might have reversed it so that the purl stitches are showing on the right side of the scarf, which would make the “front” of the cable move to what you intended to be the back of the scarf.

#3

If it was me, I’d “unknit” row by row, until you get back to to row that is the last “good” row. Then continue on from there.

PLEASE don’t worry!! This has happened to everyone who’s ever held a pair of needles! My problem with my last cabled scarf was that I hadn’t been paying attention to which row was supposed to be the “cabling” row. So I ended up with about 5 inches of extra rows between cables!

So, there are tons of us out there who have had to rip out row after of row. You’re not the first and you DEFINATELY won’t be the last!!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of knitting!!!
knitcindy

#4

New knitter or not, Saphirus is right on target. It sounds like you might have miscounted your rows so that you started doing Right Side work on the Wrong Side, thus having your cables end up on the wrong side of your scarf. Your only alternative is to rip back to where the problem started and start from there. At least you found the problem before you were too much further along! Reknitting those couple of inches won’t take you any time at all.

Good Luck!

#5

Yes, you need to frog back to where you went wrong, yes, it’s likely an issue of misscounting rows, and no, it’s not a disaster. It’s probably a matter of experience. You’ll get to the point where you can “read” your knitting and will know which side you’re on at all times, and it won’t happen again.