14 October 2006

Stupid, stupid...

There are a few arenas in which, as a knitter, I am stubborn and persist in willfully ignorant idiocy. For example, I never swatch. Ever. It was only after a million pairs of socks that were slightly too big or slightly too small that I started measuring my gauge before I'd turned the heel and realized they didn't fit. Today's idiocy? My refusal to use (or even really learn what it is) a lifeline while knitting lace. I understand, from other people's intelligence, that a lifeline saves your ass when you make a mistake knitting a garment that includes a million holes, such as, for example, the Swallowtail shawl. Maybe if I had sucked it up and learned, I wouldn't be in the predicament I'm in now, which is noticing three rows too late that the nubs are off on the left side of my shawl. Now how do I fix this? Can I tink back without making a bigger mess of it? Can I emotionally handle having to redo all those nubs? Can I flub it? It seems like it might be flubbable. What do you think?

the way things should look:

the mistaken nub (click on the picture for comments):

Edited to say that blogging has it's rewards -- I posted those pictures, then looked at them for a minute, looked back at my shawl, and realized I had made the mistake in the row I was knitting, NOT three rows back. So there... do you think I'm using a lifeline now? Ha! That would be smart!

But, I'll leave you with something sweet:


Nothing tastes better than local honey.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain, I had to tink back 2.5 rows on the same section of my Swallowtail. I am here to tell you that it was not pretty. There was quite a bit of profanity involved. I too never use a lifeline. . .perhaps I never will.

Laura said...

oooh, tinking lace is not much fun. when i did my shetland triangle, i used lifelines at first, and then when i started to feel more confident about knowing the pattern, i stopped using them. but there was tinking. :)

yum, that honey!

Veronique said...

Yeah, I had to tink back my Swallowtail too... But I refuse to use a lifeline as a matter of principle (and stupidity, perhaps).
Hmmm, honey.

Leah said...

So glad it worked out!! Tinking lace sucks!!!

That honey looks fantastic! YUM!

Chris said...

I'm glad that blogging about it helped you figure out the mistake!!