Knit Surgery

annisknittingblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/knit-surgery.html

I'm working on a new design this week. I've been knitting frantically trying to finish it
before I leave for Bristol tomorrow. After meeting Vanessa in Bristol to see Mamma Mia
live tomorrow night, I'm then going on to Cardiff for the weekend and teaching Fair Isle
& Slip Stitch Colour Work at La Mercerie on Sunday. I'm desperate to finish this new
poncho so I can wear it. This design, which is nameless so far, will be part of the Lace
Wear Volume 1 collection.

The poncho is worked in two halves. I had slightly less than a full skein of the purple
(which is Oslo Micro Dyery Merino Light) because I'd originally started a shawl in it but
changed my mind and when I ripped it out I ended up wasting some yarn due to tangles.

I thought I'd carefully weighed the yarn before I cast on, so I could reverse the
design when I'd used up half the yarn. I obviously didn't weigh it carefully enough
because in the early hours of this morning (I couldn't sleep - not because of the yarn
amount situation) I lost the game of Yarn Chicken (where you knit faster and faster to try
to finish before you run out of yarn). In the centre of the piece there's a lace repeat in
each of the two colours and I decided that my best option would be to take these two
sections out.

Here's the piece before I started. I've inserted a knitting needle either side of the rows
I'm taking out, which is the lace section in stocking stitch between the garter stitch
sections.

First I inserted a knitting needle into the

stitches either side of the section I want
to rip out. This was fairly easy because
it was at a colour change.

Below I've got a circular needle inserted

into the last row before the lace section
and into the first row after the lace
section.

I need to preserve the purple yarn as I need that to finish the poncho. The other
colour isn't so important. So I decided to start unpicking the purple yarn. At the edge of
the last purple row, I carefully unpicked a row of knitting. Because I'd cut the yarn at this
point I already had a loose end so didn't need to cut my knitting.

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I unpicked a complete row of the
purple and unravelled it down to my
knitting needle. I then carefully made
sure I hadn't missed any stitches. I then
did the same with the other lace
section.

I now have two halves with all the

stitches on a needle each. I needed to
graft (kitchener stitch) the two pieces
together and to do that, I unpicked the
last row of the beige/pale pink yarn. If
I'd grafted it as it is now, I would have
ended up with an extra row.

After unpicking the last row of the

beige/pale pink, I held the two pieces
with right sides together and grafted
the two halves together. I was working
on the wrong side so it would look like
a purl row on the right side as that's the
row I'd taken out.

Here's the final result. I'm pretty

happy with it. Once I've blocked it, it
won't be obvious that I took out 20
rows of lace. I'm now working on
finishing the last 20 rows and then I'll
be blocking it. Hopefully it'll be dry so I
can wear it when I leave for Bristol
tomorrow.

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