Have you commited any crimes against knitting? Have you managed to really louse something up? I thought I was doing rather well until the other day...

I was seaming the sleeves of a cardi. I was a bit tired and befuddled (and stupid!), so I hadn't bothered to pin the edges together first. D'oh! Anyway, I got to the end of the seam, the bit under the arm, and I had about 1 cm of spare fabric on one side. And yes, I decided to do a bit of a bodge, and attempt to hide the offending bit of fabric in the arm hole sleeve.

It worked. Sort of. But I couldn't live with it. I knew it was a bodge. So anyway, I started to unpick the seam with the aim of going back to the beginning and this time getting out the safety pins. The trouble was, I'd already woven in the ends and I could not get the bugger unpicked!

Here's where the really stupid thing occured. I took it into my head to get out the scissors. I'd convinced myself that the bit of yarn I wnated to snip away at was part of the seaming yarn, and not actually part of the knitted fabric. It's far too painful to write what happened next. I'm sure you can fill in the details...

Anyway. Some ranting, swearing and several cups of coffee later, I managed to complete the seam unpicking, repair the damage (which was fortunately not too horrifying, and right at the edge of the sleeve), and reseam everything.

Moral: Never, ever take scissors to your knitting when you're tired and a your brain is functioning a little less well than it should be.

Oh my god Hecate that sounds stressful! Mine is when i had to start again on my baby blanket after getting about just over a 1/4 of the way through! i think what happened (was awhile now and i think i tried to forget the incident) was i'd dropped a stich somewhere and tried to fix it and because theres lace work involved i just couldn't fix it i spent hours trying to sort it out and then the unravelling part came where i thought i could get to a non lace row and insert a circular needle and 'save' some of my knitting...well i ran out of sections of knitting where that was possible as everytime i tried i'd bodge it somewhere. So i eventually gave up and started again

Now, before starting my repeats on a pattern i enter a 'lifeline' which for those who dont know is some cotton thread (like the type from the craft shops not the type you sew a button back on with) ran underneath the stitches on the knitting needle using a sewing/darning needle (just dont use too big a needle) all the way through and leave it in your work so if you have to unravell it will hold your stitches (its much better explained in one of the videos on knittinghelp.com.) Which has been a lifesaver once as i made a mistake again and had to use it and i only had to go back about 8 rows this time. Only thing is its a bit of a pain inserting the lifeline as i do it every 14 rows! but for a beginner like me it is vital! :hihi:

Only other thing i can think of is something i just used to do wrong, which is casting on, because i learnt how to knit from a book i just thought that casting on was casting on and you picked a method you want, i couldn't grasp how to do thumb method so just used to do the slower way were you use both needles to cast on. Even when a pattern said use thumb method i'd think nah i'll do it my way not knowing that with thumb method it creates (i think from memory) a purl row and so its like you already start with a 'row' (i might be wrong about that, its something similliar anyway. And now i've mastered thumb method i prefer it anyway, much quicker and looks very neat.

I didn't know that about the Thumb method of casting on. I do know there are loads of different ways, depending on what you want to do with the fabric and how you want it to look.

I was absolutely the same though. I always used to use the 'knit on' method, which I think is like what you described rooty, where you use both needles. I didn't know at the time that it's a really quite inflexible cast on, so the bottom of everything I knitted was really tight!. It would have been dreadful for socks.

The revelation was Debbie Stoller's 'Stich n Bitch' book, which showed me how to do the 'long tail' cast on method. That one is lovely and stretchy - perfect for socks.

I think I can still only do about three cast ons though :hihi: Only about twenty more to go...

Must have a go at some more cast ons - tried knitting on and Debbie Stollers version of the thumb method - might have a go at long tail cast one then;)

My mistake of recent has been to carry on knitting sock 2 even though in my heart of hearts I knew there was a mistake in the patterning of the wool. Deciding to unpick to just below the problem bit - didnt use a safety net so it too rather a long time to get everything back on needles:( Didnt have a note then of what row I was up to so now am a row too short on the toe (the colour block finishes early IYKWIM). Have decided to unpick to where the toe shaping starts and redo - Im using something like Rootys lifelines I think to try and make sure I dont go too far - thanks for that hadnt heard of it before:D

Before that it was picking up stitches very wrong - ie making it up as I was going along resulting in some rather horrible holey necklines. I have now learnt how to do it properly:D

LisaH xxx

what I am working on at the moment 32 rows to pattern every time I do 5th row have to take it back 18 times feeling frustrated

what I am working on at the moment 32 rows to pattern every time I do 5th row have to take it back 18 times feeling frustrated
Why don't you post the bit of the pattern you're having trouble with on here? Just before the group was set up, we managed to sort out where someone was going wrong with their pattern. A fresh pair of eyes might be able to see something you've missed.

^^^^^ That would be me :D :blush: