The Little Voice

I savor my late night knitting - peace and quiet, a time to unwind - but working into the night can have pitfalls.  Often the ingredients are there to make a mistake - dim light, tired eyes, maybe a beer. Everyone makes knitting mistakes, day or night.  The key is knowing how and when to fix them.

A few nights ago I was knitting into the evening, working away on my Cream and Sugar Cowl.  I was making my way across a cable round when I stumbled onto a problem.  My stitch count was off.

The cable on the right had 21 stitches instead of 22.  My first thought was that I had dropped a stitch, but I inspected both sides and couldn't find a stitch hanging.  I was ready to rip back to the previous cable crossing to straighten it out, but before I pulled everything off the needles, I did a little more counting.  I discovered that the cable on the left had 23 stitches.  It was time to count all the stitches.  It turns out I had the right total but the wrong arrangement for the cables.

I then realized the problem was with the 4 purl stitches between the cables.  The first purl stitch should have been a knit, and the first stitch of the left cable should have been a purl.  If I shifted that purl panel one stitch to the left, the problem would be solved.  The best part?  Instead of ripping out, I could drop 2 stitches and fix everything.

By this time the late night had become very late.  I had pulled out a crochet hook and was about to drop the stitches when I heard a little voice.  The little voice told me this would be much easier to fix in the light of day when I wasn't so tired.  Experience has taught me to listen to that voice, so I went to bed.

In the morning I looked at the situation with fresh eyes and counted one more time just to make sure.  The situation hadn't changed overnight.

I dropped the first of the purl stitches all the way down to the round where I had mistakenly purled instead of knit.

Then I brought it all the way back to the top as a knit stitch.

Now there were 22 stitches for the right cable.

Then I did the same thing to the first stitch of the left cable.

On the wrong side I dropped it all the way down to where I had made it a knit, and I brought it back up as a purl.

The problem was fixed, and I didn't have to rip out several rounds of knitting.

It took all of 5 minutes to set things straight.

I finished the rest of the project without a hitch.

I loved this pattern the first time I made it and loved it just as much the second time around.  Gentle decreasing from bottom to top gives this cowl some shape.

The yarn is Lillian, colorway Topaz.  

Wam, yellow tones to add a splash of color.  Thick, cushy cables to chase away the chill.