…This hat really is proving to be quite the disaster, isn’t it? To start today’s post, I’d really like to thank yarnmama10 for very kindly taking the time to point out on my last post that what I had claimed (and thought) was stockinette stitch on my hat was actually garter… Whoops. I am very, very grateful for someone pointing this out to me before I picked up one of those ‘lifelong mistakes’. In my excitement to knit on with the project and rushing to remind myself the pattern for stockinette I had forgotten to pause, breathe, and think about what I was trying to do. Whoops indeed. Here is a note to myself with a helpful guide on the differences between knitting flat and in the round.
I was then faced with a minor dilemma, carry on as if this was a design choice and not a mistake and risk falling foul of the increased yarn consumption, or frog for the umpteenth time and do better next time. Even surprising myself, I opted for the latter. Maybe it is because this project has been frogged such an absurd number of times that I have lost any capacity to be upset by it anymore and it felt more like an opportunity to sort out some stitch quality issues and small mistakes as well as extending the rib section which I had now decided was too short.
After an idiotic false start where I tried to knit a checkerboard pattern rather than extending the rib, and maybe twisting a few stitches getting them back on the needles, everything went very smoothly and my stockinette is now real stockinette. I thought I had preferred the texture of the garter stitch but the stockinette shows off this gorgeous yarn much better.
A few things have been really nice about the restart. It’s clear how much my knitting speed has improved as has my tension control. Dropped stitches are now greeting with a shrug, a crochet hook, and repaired in a few seconds rather than being a source of panic. It is very nice. Knitting (for this project at least) has finally become mindless. Probably just as well given that the deluge of tedious, pointless video conferencing meetings doesn’t seem to have disappeared…
For now I can just enjoy the simplicity of the knitting (although again, why does stockinette seem to grow at such a snail-like pace compared to rib, even though it should be more efficient?) I have been a real ball of frustration this week. If I was some yarn, I’d be a skein that someone forgot to put the ties on, sloshed around a dye bath and turned into an unholy mess that would be unthinkable to sort out. I think the frustration comes from a lot of different things at the moment, though perhaps not from knitting for once, but if anyone wants me in the meantime I will have stuck my head in my fibre basket until I feel better. Silk and merino is much, much better than sand. I’ll be making my hat too, one tiny little knit stitch at a time.
It’s looking good! Just a tip in case you don’t realize but if you drop a stitch in stockette or if you drop a stitch in purl, when you pick up the stitch with the crochet hook double check to make sure you’ve picked up the stitch the right way. Off the top of my head I can’t tell you which is which but it makes a difference which direction you insert the hook – into the front or into the back. One way you get a stockette stitch the other you get a purl stitch. I always pick up the stitch, check it and if I’m wrong I re-drop the stitch and pick it up the other direction.
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You pick up from the knit looking side. So drop a purl stitch and pick up from the back is easiest. Pull yarn through from behind.
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Cheers for the information! I can never remember which way for which is either, maybe I need to drop more stitches for the practice!
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Sounds as if all that extra effort has been of benefit in increased confidence and speed. I like knitting in the round because you can achieve a stocking stitch effect with just mindless ‘knitting’.
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I think slow growth is the real reason progress markers became a thing. Put one on at the beginning of your sit down and then at the end, admire how far you’ve come. 🙃
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I have some lovely ones that I’ve never really used but if I ever get around to tackling some lace knitting projects…
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Your hat looks great! Congrats on your perseverance. Mistakes in our knitting are part of the learning process but also just a fact of life. I have been a knitter 40 years and believe me they still happen all the time. 🙂
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Thanks a lot for your comment on the other post – very much appreciated! Yeah I think the great thing about getting more experienced is that mistakes (or at least other people’s) can be a bit less terrifying – having said that, then you tend to take on projects where the mistakes can be even more complicated!
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It looks beautiful! Keep going. Don’t give up.
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It is looking great! Good for you keeping on with it. Keep persevering, and you will have a lovely hat that will keep you warm for years to come!
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Maybe somewhat ironic that I will finally finish some winter knitwear in the summer 😉
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LOL! Well, you’ll have it ready when winter rolls back around again 🙂
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I think your hat looks great! I agree sometimes it’s near impossible to see the progress, but you’ll be at the top before you know it. And it’s always a zoom towards the finish. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
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Thank you! I’m getting there! Not long to go
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[…] I try to keep myself on a relatively strict yarn diet. As those of you who have been following the Sockhead Hat saga, I’m not the quickest knitter and it has got to the stage where doing crochet with even size 10 […]
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