Blue's Minor Surgery

Last night Blue and I were clipping along like nobody's business. I added the second row of beads and decided to take a closer look at the finished work. One pulls on lace in order to get a clear view and as I did a few stitches started unravelling below my working row. It was late, I was tired so instead of trying to resolve the situation, I put the stitches on a holder and went to bed.

But this morning, I took the rather bold approach of trying to incorporate one of the techniques Laura Nelkin taught in the video class I purchased recently. It was going to be a relatively easy fix, good for a first attempt and perhaps an ego boost in my abilities to do this type of repair if I succeeded so I just went for it.

First a diagnosis of the problem had to be done. It appeared as if I missed one of the K2tog (knit two together) stitches a couple of rows down. The missed stitch was a YO (yarn over) so it slipped down an additional row. Problem identified.

The error was found reading this left side of the chart

Those three stitches all a blur closest to the camera; they are the problem

Second the operating room needed to be set up. A puzzle mat designed for children was purchased at a dollar store recently to serve multiple purposes here in the condo. Miss M can play with the pieces, they can be placed under the chair she eats at to help collect falling food and these pieces can serve as blocking mats of various sizes for my knitting. Pretty ingenious, even if I do say so myself.

I have no idea how 8 and 5 ended up being used, could have been any combination between 0-9

Yes, I took a picture of my white hand towel, you are welcome

Third I covered the mat with a white towel so you and I could see the repairs. Fourth I grabbed some T-pins and we were ready for surgery. Fifth as Nelkin instructed I used a smaller pair of DPNs and my crochet hook (the surgical tools if you will) and sixth, started pulling stitches out until the row left was as it should be.

T-pins waiting their turn

The correct stitches on the DPN at the bottom of photo

All ripped apart with rows of yarn lined up

Seventh, using the T-pins I separated the yarns, one for each row that needed to be fixed. Finally taking a good like at the chart, I corrected my way up the rows using the DPNs and crochet hook (it gets to be very close quarters as you near the end so a crochet hook works better for me in those tight spots).

First row in process of being fixed

Second row fixed

Done!

Blue is now happily resting just waiting for me to pick it up again. The eight steps above took less than 20 minutes from identification of the problem to putting everything back where it belongs including the photography. If I hadn't risked this surgery there would have had to been three rows ripped out, or approximately 60 minutes of knitting ripped out and then reknit making 2 hours of work. So was it better to invest 20 minutes or 2 hours? I like the 20 minutes but it was a risk and had it failed I was going to write about it any way. Laura Nelkin suggested right at the start, if one doesn't practice correcting errors this way, one will never improve. And if I had failed, the arm strong method was still an option. It is much easier to write about because it worked, though.

Blue and I continue to be very happy with one another. Blue's day surgery was an overwhelming success. The patient is and will be fine.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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