Tag Archives: rip

The Cursed Sweater

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I don’t know what’s happening to me!  I don’t think I disturbed any sacred burial grounds, or crossed any old crones-who-are-secretly-witches, and I definitely didn’t unearth any mummies.  Heck, it’s not even a full moon!

I’ve clearly upset the knitting gods (or at least some knitting trickster spirit), because this project is killing me, you guys.  You guys.  It’s killing me.

You remember my super-secret-project?  The one with the ribbing that I totally messed up?  Well, after repairing the damage in the dumbest possible way (really, Allison- why on earth did you think it was a good idea to get out the crochet hook?), I realized I had messed it up even more than I had thought.

I had cast on the wrong number of stitches.

Needless to say I was upset.  I ripped it out, rechecked my math and was on my way (for the third time).

Fast forward two weeks, and I think I have it under control.  I’ve checked all my math, and everything looks good.  My project is coming along.

Until, two days ago, I connected several separate pieces together (a very finicky step).  And.

Would you believe it?  I messed up again!  This was two days ago, and I didn’t notice until yesterday morning, when I had to rip out a full 24 hours of work!I’m finally getting back to where I was two days ago.  But hoo boy.  I’m struggling.

At least it’ll look good when it’s done.

Hopefully.

Ugh.

Have you ever had a cursed project?  What happened to it?  Did you manage to break the curse?

“Last Night Allison” Strikes Again

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You all remember the last time Last Night Allison struck.  It wasn’t pretty. I mean, I managed to fix it, but it was touch and go for a while, and way more difficult than I expected it to be.

Unfortunately, Last Night Allison struck again.  But here’s the worst part.  I have no excuse for my bad decisions.  It wasn’t late (actually it was about 3:00 in the afternoon).  I hadn’t been drinking (except a cup of decaffeinated tea).  And, I really should have been paying attention.

I was starting the prototype of a sweater I’m working on.  The pattern begins with (spoiler!) a 1×1 rib for about 2 inches.

This is what I knit:Allison, that’s not a 1×1 rib!  That’s a 2×2 rib!  That’s a 2×2 rib that you worked on for about three hours before realizing your mistake!  (There was swearing.)

So, then, I had to decide, do I rip out the whole thing?  Start over?  Or, do I painstakingly go through with a crochet hook and change half the knits to purls, and half the purls to knits?

I bet you can’t guess what Last Night Allison chose.  (That’s right!  She picked the most fiddly and difficult choice possible.)I ripped each column of stitches out, one by one, carefully picking them back up in the proper orientation.  Which is totally not a super annoying process.  Ha!Amazingly, the fixed ribbing actually looks pretty good- I was afraid it would be a little wonky, but it looks OK.The only problem is I’ve still got well over halfway to go.  I think my “quick fix” is going to end up taking longer than re-knitting the whole thing would have.  Of course, at this point I’ve sunk too much effort into it, so I’m here for the long haul.What would you have done?  Would you have ripped the whole thing and re-knit, or do you have agreed with Last Night Allison?  Or, do you have a magical solution that would have been better than either?