To unravel or not to unravel?

#1

I’ve gone and done a silly thing. When knitting one of the front panels (bottom up) for a ladies’ cardigan (“Hey, Teach!” from Knitty Summer 2008), I introduced a new ball of yarn… but instead of knitting with the two strands of yarn for 4 or 5 stitches, I’ve knit the whole row with the doubled yarn. In the following rows, I used only a single strand from the new ball.

As a result, that one row is now thicker than the rest of the piece. I had hoped that blocking the heck out of it would help the issue… but it’s still there. (To give you an idea, it looks like a crease.) It’s not a horrible issue but it’s noticeable… and since it’s a gift for someone, I want to make sure that it looks good.

The problem that I’m having now is that this happened way down toward the bottom of the panel. I’ve knit 40 rows of St st, followed by 8 rows of ribbing, and then about 70 rows of a lace pattern after committing this mistake. If I were to unravel back to that row, I would be undoing approximately 3700 sts and [I]hours[/I] of work — and the cardigan needs to be ready in 4 days :doh:

Is there a way to just… go in and pull out that unnecessary second strand of yarn (from the first ball)? I’d stop about 5 sts from the beginning of the row, to recreate a normal yarn join.

Or, alternatively, is it possible to unravel from the CO edge and re-knit [I]down[/I]?

Any advice is appreciated!

#2

Yes, you can do either. But since it is less work to pick out the extra yarn. I’d start there.

You need a yarn needle & sharp pair of small scissors like embroidery ones. Flip the work to the wrong side. Find the extra end. Tug on the yarn to identify which of the double strands it is attached to. Slip your yarn needle under that bit of yarn. Now you can either work it free. Or snip it, then pull it free. It is slow cause you can only do about 1/2 stitch at a time. But better to be safe & not cut the wrong strand. You can pick back to about 3 stitches from the join. That way the join stays tight. The remaining stitches might be a bit loose. Blocking will probably help with that.

If all else fails, you can cut, pick up from the bottom & reknit (like you would with provisional cast on.)

#3

Forgot to mention another option. If, after you pick out the yarn, the stitches are too loose, you can cut & graft. You use kitchner stitch, same as closing toes.

I’d try unpicking first.
Grafting second.
Reknitting toward the bottom last.

#4

I totally agree with Abby123! Good advice, Abby! :thumbsup:

I’m so sorry you’re having this issue with your knitted gift! I’m confident that you’ll
be able to fix it up fine, using one of Abby’s remedies!

Hugs,

Artlady

#5

:woot:

Thank you so much, ladies! I tried Abby’s picking technique and it worked really well! The row is now a little loose but I’m blocking it and hoping that it will tighten up again.

I’m sure if I wrestled with it long enough I would’ve figured it out on my own… but I didn’t have that kind of time. I also needed the moral support :wink: (This board is great for that!)

Thanks again!

#6

I thought you may be interested in seeing how the sweater turned out:

I thought I’d have trouble seaming it all together but it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated! (I had only done a vest in the round before, with very minimal seaming under the arms… and no sleeves.) I actually really love how it came out and almost didn’t want to part with it last night :wink:

Thank you again for your help!

#7

It’s beautiful! You should share it in What’cha Knittin’ so more people will see it. :thumbsup: