Ribbit

On my birthday last year both Shannon and mom gifted me hand spun yarn, what a treat! As soon as I opened Shannon's I knew exactly what I wanted to knit out of it.

A long while back (Spring of 2008) I saw a shawl pattern in Spin-Off magazine that I really wanted to knit. It is a Traditional Danish Tie Shawl, the pattern is based on an old Danish pattern. I know mom has already knit one up, maybe she will post a picture of her completed one so you can see it.

The pattern is simple so I thought it would be a good one to lug along to hockey practices and knit while I watch the kids play. I was knitting away on it at SeaBass's game on the weekend and the game was so good I put one of my yarn overs in the wrong place. I did not notice for a few rows and then when I did see it I thought maybe I could live with it that way (Denial, I know) the more rows I knit the more I realized I could not live with it.



I did at one point decide to drop a few stitches in that area and see if I could go back and fix just that little section. I tried that and and was not happy with the results, so I knit a few more rows to torture myself a little.

Finally I decided I needed to just suck it up and rip back to my mistake. I tried a trick I have read about often but have never done. I used a smaller size needle and picked up the stitches on the row just beneath my mistake:



I took a deep breath and pulled out my working needle. I ripped back to the needle I used for the life line and prayed I picked up all the stitches and the few yarn overs all on the same row.



And it worked!!! You can see my stitches are leaning the wrong way on one side, but that was no big deal, I stitched into the knit stitches the right way to turn them around and I was back on track. Now I have even knit enough to be back where I was when I decided to rip back. Shannon did such a nice job spinning the wool that it held up nicely to the abuse of being ripped back and knit twice, it no worse for wear at all.

Shannon, if I am remembering right this is well traveled wool. I think I recall you posting pictures of this wool while you were spinning it in Oklahoma. I was thinking if my memory is correct then this wool has been from CA to OK and back to CA only to be delivered to me in WA and then knit up in Canada.



One for the road. This is Q trying on the chaps that Paul's parents got him for his birthday. A perfect fit.