On knitting night last week Cristina and I spent ages trying to figure out where I'd gone wrong - luckily she relishes the challenge and has a much better grasp of the construction of knitting than I have so she can 'read' it better than me. Eventually I had to go back several rows stitch by stitch until I'd got it right again - no way was I just pulling a needle back and ripping out a few rows. It was a needle coming adrift (accidentally) and me picking the stitches back up wrongly that got me into this mess!
I'm discovering that the wool I'm using (Shilasdair Luxury 4-ply) just doesn't like the strains I'm putting it under with my constant undoing and redoing, and being as soft as anything it just parts under the pressure. I'm sure it's absolutely fine for people who don't make as many mistakes as me, but perhaps I really need a tougher wool (sock yarn with a bit of synthetic for toughness?) until I know what I'm doing. Nevertheless the scarf is coming along nicely now - I have the right number of stitches doing the right things, I have a lifeline in place (planning ahead for the next mistake) and the pattern is just so beautifully symmetrical. My daughter said to me last night 'We're learning about symmetry!'. There's something very endearing about a five-year-old using a sort of technical grown-up sounding word like 'symmetry'! I tried not to laugh - she was so earnest about it.
2 comments:
I love symmetry and your scarf is beautiful! As a beginner-level knitter I can sympathize with you. Picking up stitches is a never-ending mystery to me - even when I think I'm doing it right, they come out twisted. That's why crochet is so comforting - only one loop to drop and it's easy to pick up again.
That's one reason I'm keen to get the hang of crochet I think, it's so much more portable. I've been knitting forever (well, since I was eight) but I still don't like picking up dropped stitches. I'm okay when it's just stocking stitch but the lace throws me completely!
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