A Cross to Bear

I don't know if anyone looked very closely in my last post at the picture of the back of my "Peace in the Hood" cardigan. On the last cable on the left, very close to the top in that photo, there was a mis-crossed cable. Here's a cropped closeup of the disaster.



I was about to start the shoulder shaping. I had lay the peice on my measuring boards and determined that in two more rows, I would begin the cast offs on the shoulder. Almost there! Another few rows and I could plop the back peice into the "done" bucket and move on to the frount.

But, to my horror, I saw my error! And I was another 20 rows further along than I was in the picture I posted, so it was not nearly so close to the top of the work. My mouth went dry...panic rose. I have never, ever had to redo cables. I'm usually so careful, and I'm not a big time cable knitter. It had just never came up, and I was at a total loss as to what to do.

I came and got on the computer immediately. I went to Ravelry, went to forums and typed in crossed cables (or something like that...as I said...I was panicing). Up came all the discussions on the subject. The first that caught my eye was all about cutting one strand and sort of fake grafting the cable in the right direction. I immediately ruled that out! It's ok if you have that kind of nerve...to cut...CUT..like that..but not for me. I'd rather frog back to the error and reknit it all.

But I kept reading, and I finally came up with the goods. The Yarn Harlot (for those from another planet, that is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) had a solution that suited ME in her blog.It required securing all the other stitches, besides the 6 in the cable, and dropping the stitches back to where the mistake was, and then using three DPN's to "reknit" them back in the proper order.

So I held my breath and dropped (or rather, picked out row by row)the stitches and cable:



Then I lay it aside. This was yesterday, at about noon, and I simply was so sleepy and so tired and so nerve-wracked I couldn't face it. I knew I was off tonight, so figured waiting another day would be my best option.

In the meantime, I cast on stitches for the front of the peice and began working on the ribbing. This is what I took to work with me last night, and I did get a couple inches done, although not as much as I had hoped.



This morning, while I was still fresh (fresh being relative, I AM a night shift worker, so my fresh and your fresh might differ), I finally managed to finish the repair job. It took me a couple of hours, but I think I achieved fairly decent results:



My stitches are a bit whacky, gauge is all over the place, and I'm praying I can pick, block and otherwise force the stitches back into shape. The Yarn Harlot assures me I can, so I believe!

On a more happy note, I recieved anothing lovely gift from fellow Raveler Neekie. She sent me a bag of hot chocolate and two balls of Grignasco Bambi Extra fine Merino wool. From her account, it makes "squishy, comfy socks". I'm stoked. I really didn't think these dang presents would make an old jaded bird like me so happy, but they really, really do! THANKS NEEKIE!



Oh, and before I go, I just wanted to post "Mom's Rose" for her. It was blooming when she was here in Australia three years ago, and when I saw it blooming the other day, I just had to get a picture and post it here. Here's your rose mom. I love you!