I'm going to put this on my posts until election day:
No shame if you haven't made a plan to vote yet, but today would be a great day to do it! Is there early voting in your state? (I learned today that almost all of them do! Just not in Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire.) If you got a mail-in ballot, can you drop it at early voting instead of relying on the mail to get it there in time? Or do you want to go on the day itself? That's November 5, next Tuesday! Why not look at your schedule now and see what works best for you?
Actually, this is a story of two friends indeed! I mentioned recently that I was having trouble with a knitting project: I couldn't find where I had made a mistake, but the stitch count had gone wrong. Last night, my knitting group met in person again (yay!) after spending the summer on Zoom*, and I said that I wasn't sure what I was going to do about it, try again or just move to a different project.
*Though actually, we had Zoom open too, for the sake of the people who aren't here yet.
A couple of people who are better than I am at 'reading' a piece of knitting* offered to look at it, and discovered that yeah, it was my mistake (I am not shocked). They suggested that I could run in a lifeline, rip back to it, and go on from there. Which is good advice, but I said that no, I could guarantee that if I tried it, I would mess up getting all the stitches from the same row, and end up flinging it across the room in a fit of fury (knitter, know thyself), so it was either frog the whole project and start over, or frog it and go with Plan B.
*I'm really not very good at that, especially in lace.
One of these friends actually loves straightening out tangles (seriously, her eyes light up when someone says "hey, I have something for you" and it's a tangled mess), and she offered to take it home, do it herself, and get it back to me. How awesome is that? I will report back on how it goes.
Oh, man. THAT is a true friend. Did your sigh of relief blow back a row of palm trees?
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of lifelines in knitting. As soon as I get frustrated, or if there's any change in the pattern, I sneak one in. That is a Lesson Learned The Hard Way. Frogging is always, always, always my very last resort (and usually occurs after I tear up and put the project away for a long time).
I really should start putting in lifelines when I begin a lace project. I do sometimes put them in later, when I'm at the point of wondering if I have enough for another repeat before the edging or bind-off, but I don't think of it at the start, and I should.
DeleteThat's a very nice and clever friend! I've voted and my vote has been accepted and added to the tally. (WA)
ReplyDeleteWoo hoo, voting! Yes, it's nice of her, and she actually enjoys it.
DeleteAwww. That is sweet. My son has a beloved knitted blankie that has unravelled to the point he's basically sleeping with a ball of yarn. I really need to find a pro knitter to work some magic on my end!
ReplyDeleteIf you're willing to pay, try asking at a yarn store, if there's one near you; some either have an employee who will fix it up for you, or can recommend someone else.
DeleteThat IS a good friend!
ReplyDeleteStephanie Pearl-McPhee once wrote that she has never regretted frogging what needed to be frogged, and I've used that line when I'm arguing with myself on the subject. The galloping horse standard sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn't when I know just a little too much that I will know the mistake is there.
I hate when I have to rip back to fix a mistake, but I am too much of a perfectionist to not do that... LOL (I am glad you got someone to do it for you though).
ReplyDeleteAlso, yes. EVERYBODY please vote. (We dropped off our mail in ballots this week.)
There are some mistakes I can live with and some I can't. In this case, where it's setting up the lace pattern, it was going to be so obvious and wrong.
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