Hello! So the issue I’m having is that I’m trying to work in the round on a 1x1 ribbing (one knit one purl) upside down after undoing the cast on and I’m discovering that the stitches are offset.
The idea was to replace the cast on with that nice threaded invisible bind off done with a sewing needle because it looks great and it matches the stretchiness of the ribbing perfectly. But I started and undid it 3 times thinking I was working my knits like purls and vice versa before realising it wasn’t going to work the same way. Even with the threading looking somewhat correct the stretch of the bind off being offset from the ribbing is causing them to cancel each other out and the result is an edge that isn’t stretchy at all. On top of that, I spotted a mistake I made a few rows down, looks like I purled a knit, but when I tried to drop down to fix it I discovered that somehow on my first row that stitch is locked, so if I want to fix it I’d have to frog at least a row.
My main goal is to find a way to achieve a stretchy invisible bind off that can accommodate the offset, but ideally also to find a method to knit downwards so that I can go fix that mistake… I’m also interested in learning the right way to achieve this. Maybe a better cast on I need to learn?
What is the name of your pattern and designer? Are you knitting in the round or back and forth?
One solution is to take out the entire rib and work from the sweater body up into the rib. You can knit the rib and increase or decrease almost invisibly to counter the offset. You’ll be able to remove the mistake stitch at the same time and then work a sewn bind off.
Another possibility is to take the knit rib down to the mistake and counter the offset with increases and decreases (See after 2:00min and especially after 5:30min). This seems less satisfactory to me but it’s a possibility. (You could cut in the middle of the row rather than at one end so that when you pull the yarn out of the row you have enough length to weave in.)
I’m working in the round on a ribbed beanie. The pattern could be named something like “I measured my head, then measured a swatch that had a gauge I was happy with then did some math” I can’t take off the ribbing, that would just amount to finding another project
I’m not sure the offset has anything to do with the amount of stitches (plus in the round 5 stitches means 5 spaces since you’d have a space between stitch 1 and 5). This section is monochrome and I casted a lot of them, so it’s not an issue of a pattern being off. Doing an increase or decrease somewhere would not help with the fact that working the rest of the stitches after that would still have that problem. I’m assuming the solution lies more in the realm of how to work those stitches…
Hello
You won’t get a rib worked down to align with rib worked up, the half stitch offset won’t let you, as you’ve found.
Working down from a previsional cast on (or undoing a cast in to work more length) can be really useful for stockinette where the offset is not noticable but if you had say stranded colourwork, cables, lace, or rib, they would all be knocked out of line.
These things are just handy to learn and the only way is by trying things out, reading tutorials, chatting here etc, which you are doing. I’ve spent many days trying to get various things to align!
For your beanie the things I can think of are either to work a different pattern for some rows to make an obvious design feature, say a band of garter stitch, or 2x2 rib (or 1 x 3 or any attractive variation which fits your stitch count) and then return to the 1 × 1 rib to do the bind off you wanted. The change in stitch pattern would help disguise the offset. Then enjoy wearing it with it and its individual quirks and know that you learned some new things.
Or
Try some different cast ons to find one that works for you, cast on and work UP, then graft this rib section to the main rib section. You may need lots of practise to produce a graft row the same tension so it is hidden or it may be perfect first time.
You might look at the italian rib cast on, there are few different ways of doing it and lots of tutorials.
Or
Try out a new a new bind off and just go with the change at the bind off on this project, maybe a garter ridge then an icelandic bind off, or a small icord bind off, something that is different from the rib pattern so the half stitch offset doesn’t matter.
The row with the error, if this is near the cast on, i think you’re trying to ladder the wrong way. I might be wrong here but I don’t think you can ladder from the wrong direction although I’ve never tried it and i don’t claim to be the most knowledgeable with knitting techniques. I do know that you can’t rip back or tink from the wrong end like you do from the right end, it just doesn’t work.
That stitch then, you need to cut from the row above to remove it, seems a bit excessive for one stitch but if you are going to add a new section anyway then maybe you don’t mind cutting more off.
An alternative for that single stitch is to work a knit shaped duplicate stitch over the accidental purl. For this you would use a small strand an tapestry needle, sew the stitch then weave the 2 ends in. It would disguise the stitch. There are lots of tutorials for this.
The next hat you design will have all this learning worked into it.
Yes, my plan B for now is to reknit a few rows from a better cast on and then graft it past the mistake. I’ll go check the one you mentionned! I think stitches being locked makes sense when the cast on is still on, but shouldn’t it still be loops hanging from each other past that? For now I’m finishing the top (the decreases are so fun to do!). Once I’m done I’ll take the time to study the downwards situation again and if I can’t figure it out I’ll go for a graft…
It is fun when you get to the decreases, each row or round shorter than the last and approaching the end!
You’re correct that there are loops hanging along the row after you’ve taken out the cast on row. But those sts are locked because of the way they were formed.
Work a small swatch and play with taking out the cast on then the next rows to see the difficulty.
Here’s an easier graft than Kitchener for stockinette although not ribbing.
Depending how far up the mistake is and the design of the hat, you could make a fold up ribbed edge and it might hide it. It would also disguise the jog in the rib when changing direction.
A swatch for experimenting with the cast on, working down, cutting surgery, grafting and so on is really useful. The stitches really don’t unravel or drop down like they do from the top and without a practise run you might ruin your hat further up than you expected (i knew someone who tried surgery on a lovely colour work sweater who did not try the technique first as she believed she could just unravel upwards and work the extra rows back in… ended in a mess and frogged sweater).
I recently did this on a hat and it worked a treat! I picked up so the seam ridge would be on the outside and covered by the folded-up brim, leaving a smooth seam on the inside so I wouldn’t feel it.
I’ll go check the one you mentionned! I think stitches being locked makes sense when the cast on is still on, but shouldn’t it still be loops hanging from each other past that? For now I’m finishing the top (the decreases are so fun to do!). Once I’m done I’ll take the time to study the downwards situation again and if I can’t figure it out I’ll go for a graft…