The Jury’s Out

But I think they’ll come back soon with a guilty verdict. I’m referring, of course, to my Miller’s Daughter lace repair job. The background story here is that I am working on said shawl, am really excited about it, and would like to have it done by a week from Saturday so I can wear it to MDSW. At the end of the third lace panel, I found I had somehow dropped some stitches in a way that couldn’t easily be fixed. I planned to just drop the stitches in that section down to my lifeline and work them back up row by row.

I planned to wait until I had some uninterrupted time in the daylight hours to do it. But, last night, I was feeling fidgety and just wanted to get it done. So, a little after 9pm (which tends to be my productive/creative time), I turned on every light I could and got to work. I ended up having to drop back seven rows of about a dozen stitches. I followed my own good advice this time and labelled the unravelled loops of working yarn with post-its. I even tinked back a couple of rows and reworked them when it wasn’t looking quite right. Once I finished, it was time to turn in for the night.

Looking at it now in the light of day, I’m pretty sure this attempt was unsuccessful:

No really…this is post-repair

It’s hard to say, though. The super loose stitches on the left side of the repaired section are loose because I used much smaller needles to reknit, and there was leftover yarn at the end of each row. Also, I needed that much leeway in order to get the yarn overs in. In theory, I should be able to use a small dpn or crochet hook to work the excess yarn into the knitting on either side. Once the tension is fixed, it just might be okay.

However, I think I might have offset the lace pattern accidentally. It’s just hard to tell because, again, the tension is so wonky. I suppose I’ll put a little work into evening it out before I make a decision, but I’m mostly sure that I will be ripping the whole piece back to my lifeline and just redoing it. It was good practice, though!

I have quite the knitting to do list:

• Finish shawl repair/rip back/whatever needs to happen there
• Start on any of the one million test knits that are overdue
• Start knight’s helmet baby hat and diaper cover (a commission job)
• Start doing a crocheted blanket repair (long story)
• Do some more work on my Feathery Lace Stole
• Reblock and photograph two knitted dresses I finished over a month ago

However, I don’t really want to do any of that. I mostly just want to cast on for some socks!

Happy knitting!

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