Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Frogging Made Easy

At least physically....

Alright. You've made a mistake about ten rows back. sigh.
Typically, you rip back and you've got this whole row of stitches you have to maneuver onto the needle.


You get about 1/2way across and the pulling makes the loops you're aiming for start to disappear. Dropped stitches ensues along with some unpleasant verbiage. I have been known to tink back 12 rows or more just to avoid this. Until I was taught this technique.

Lorie from my the first knit group I used to hang out with in Tucson showed me this little trick.


Rip all but the last rows necessary, then when you get to the row you're shooting for... pull 3 stitches loose, put those 3 stitches on the needle. Rinse, repeat.

I, also, will put the needle in the next stitch, under the yarn, then pull the yarn out of the stitch. This is helpful with really slippery yarns (like the Ornaghi Filati Gong pictured). Sometimes, just to be sure, Ill do these methods a row above where I need to stop, then tink the last row. That way I can make sure I have all the stitches I'm supposed to have.

Of course, you always want to recount your stitches after you rip. You don't want to rip and then continue for several rows only to discover you don't have all the necessary stitches and you've got to rip again. Ask me how I know. sigh.


So now you have a technique (or two) to make your frogging physically easier. As for making it emotionally easier.... I'm open to suggestions.

Avoiding the frog pond, Ruth!

4 comments:

Yarnhog said...

You can also take a spare needle, run it through just one leg of each stitch in the row you want to rip back to, pull out the working needles and rip back to the spare needle, which will now be holding the live stitches at exactly the right row. You can either transfer the stitches to the working needle, or, if you work with interchangeable needle tips, just switch tips, or knit the stitches off the spare needle onto the working needle...
Any way you do it is easier than ripping and then trying to find the stitches, and faster than transferring three at a time.

Olga said...

Congrats on winning that contest I was suppose to win.....I was robbed. ;)

sophanne said...

sheer frustration taught me your first technique- oh how brilliant I felt after that realization.

I fear I will be using the second technique more often than I careto but I'm glad you shared it. I usually grab the safety pins, let some stitches stay and some drop and count at the end-picking up a couple of stitches was easier than redoing everything. I will definitely try to remember that.

I'm trying to imagine yarnhog's suggestion and while it sounds easy enough, I'm pretty sure the frog demons will be laughing at me when I try it.

sophanne said...

Is there something wrong with me because I am considering frogging a little bit of the next swatch I make just to give yarnhog's idea a try?