Making My Mother Proud

With great pride, last night I spread out the newly completed body of my Town & Country cardigan so that I could take a few moments to enjoy it's beauty. One thing was puzzling me, though, because the pieces at the top hadn't quite come out the same - as they should have.
The first section I did - the right front - was the offending portion. I knew there was a problem there, but it took me a while to figure it out. Can you see it?
How about here?
That's right....there's a shorter zig in the middle where I turned around and zagged one row too quickly.
Also complicating the problem, the row numbers on the chart didn't line up properly with their corresponding rows. When I did the neck shaping for that first piece I hadn't caught the mistake...and so my shaping was ever so slightly off.
Those two errors - both user and pattern - meant that I didn't catch on right away to the fact that this whole piece was two rows too short AND I had made what I felt to be a fairly obvious mistake in the pattern.
The debate then becomes whether or not to fix....and I suppose you know the answer to that before I even have to say anything.
First I unraveled that section back to the point where the neck shaping had begun.
Then I placed the stitches on either side of the offending section on DPN's and....
Take a deep breath - especially those of you who are faint-hearted -
Dropped the stitches all the way down to where the mistake was. (For the record, that was almost back to the place where I had divided the body for the sleeves!) Another DPN was then used to pick up the live stitches so that I could...
Reknit them all back up! I wound up leaving one dropped stitch on the left side because it gave me just enough wiggle room to make the whole process comfortable for my hands.
A crochet hook and a matter of a couple of minutes helped me to pick that last stitch back up. I then gave the whole thing a few good tugs, put it all back on one needle and

Reknit the shaping and cast off for the shoulders.

Problem solved.

My mother is happy.

And so am I.

Comments

Bonnie said…
I saw the shorter "zig" right away and immediately felt bad for you!

Congrats on an expert fix. I myself could only have managed it by ripping back all the way. I admire your skills!!!

Merry Christmas! I look forward to reading about all of your knitting and other adventures (farming?) in 2011!
Paula said…
Well done. I'm not sure I could have fixed that one without ripping out...but I would have tried! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Shelda said…
Oh, I LOVE that photo! Not for the faint of heart, but it looks great now. Good on you, girlfriend!

And leave it? No flippin' way! I knew that.
Leciawp said…
Nice job! Merry Christmas to you and yours. xoxo

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