A lacey story

In spite of the mantra that Lara intoned to me when I visited her house a few weeks ago for a delicious tea party (go the posh petit four!) 'don't fuck it up. don't fuck it up' I went right ahead and fucked it up.

Try as I might, I often find that to unravel five stitches or so down three or four rows of lace knitting in order to knit back up correctly can be problematic, particularly if there are yarnovers on either side. I can see that it has to do with the twist the yarnovers put in the strands, a yarnover twists two threads - if you're not super careful you end up with yarnovers with several twists all on one side. The knitting can be sort of technically correct but looks awful at one yarnover line. If I've lost you there don't worry, I haven't explained it very well.

Anyhow, I find it takes longer than it would just to rip the thing back the four rows and redo it.

And that's the situation I found myself in with the peacock on Wednesday. I jinxed myself by posting about how I was going to finish it and ended up stuffing it up instead. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory once again.

Pictorially here's what I did.

Soaked it. (See knitpicks stainless steel is impervious to water. Good.)

Pinned it.

Identified the problem.

Realised that this problem was the least of the problems in the rows. Ripped back four rows, picked them up again and got back in the saddle.

Still on track to finish one day next week, but I won't be making any more rash predictions.