Saturday, May 17, 2008

In Which I Am Temporarily Deflated

You know that part of Oedipus Rex where Oedipus is all like, "Tra la la, I'm king and I'm married to a sexy chick and I got the world on string, dancing on a rainbow," and then gods are all like, "Ha ha dude, you murdered your father and that hot chick you married is your mom," and Oedipus is all like "Ohhhhhhh nooooooooooooo" and claws his own eyes out?

Well, I feel somewhat akin to Oedipus right now. Not because I'm guilty of patricide and incest (shut up! gross!) but because the knitting gods have chosen this moment to knock back a few beers and have a giggle at my expense.

I was fewer than ten rows from the end of the first repeat of the Wedding Ring Shawl center when I noticed something. See the little green arrow?

Missing Row

It's pointing to the row I skipped. Yup. Just skipped right over it. Didn't knit it at all. Left it out. Golly! Whoops!

That row mostly serves to put a space between the two beads inside the lozenge, so I didn't notice anything was goofy until I'd worked half the second row of lozenges in the repeat.

Then I said something emphatic and unsuitable for general audiences that rhymes with "Truck! Pluck! You smother clucking Tina Yotherbucker! What the ducking plucking truck! Zit! Zit!"

I could keep knitting, and chances are nobody would ever notice. But I would notice. I'd spread out the finished piece and the absence of that row would be the only thing I'd notice.

So, bloody but unbowed, I rip. This is an epic project; I'll do it well or not at all. It is the mature way. The noble way.

And if you tell me I should have used lifelines so help me beeotch I will gouge your piggy eyes out with my own two thumbs.

105 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:18 AM

    Oh, Franklin, honey.... I feel your pain. So totally feel your pain. I've been knitting the Irish Diamond Shawl from Folk Shawls, and it's taken me 2 months to get to the point where I am now -- 30 rows from the end. I've started calling it the Hateful Shawl, because the damn thing does not want to be knit. I've had to tink and rip and frog the stupid thing more times than I'm comfortable saying.

    I won't tell you to use lifelines, because you know that. All I can do is empathize, wince in solidarity and lace-knitting brotherhood, and pray that the ripping isn't too frustrating for you.

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  2. See, this is what makes you a good knitter and me a bad knitter. I would, when finished doing the rhyming song, would say "Oh look, a design feature" and leave it there. I just hope no one looks too closely at my lace. Ya, know, I have always depended on the blindness of strangers.

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  3. Anonymous8:45 AM

    you're even funnier when you're angry. (for shame! not possible!)

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  4. Anonymous8:47 AM

    Argh! I feel your pain. I've done exactly the same thing on a lace stole I'm working on - completely missed the row then noticed five repeats later. It's staying like it is - it's going to bug the hell out of me, but no-one except me is ever going to notice (I've pointed out the mistake to about 30 people - knitters and non-knitters, and only one has seen it) and it's being gifted to the otherside of the country where I'm not going to have to see it again. Your far braver than I.

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  5. Anonymous8:56 AM

    I do feel your pain, but please know that your Readers Digest Condensed Version of Oedipus Rex was the funniest thing I'd read in a long time.

    I'm with Mary Lou. Design features and "blindness of strangers." (which was also worth a good giggle)

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  6. Holy "zit"! That appears to be a messed up "yotherbucker". This project, like all your others, will be incredible for the extra effort. No coulda, shoulda, woulda admonitions here.

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  7. Standing back in corner behind Dolores and Harry for protection. I know the feelin... oh do I know the feeling!!!

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  8. Ohhhhh, MAN! such a shame, and so brave of you to go ahead and fix it. "Lifeline" at this point == large tumbler of good Scotch.

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  9. Anonymous9:23 AM

    Oh Franklin the shawl looks beautiful to me, but if you know it's going to bother you, you've made the right decision. Good luck! You know it's going to be so lovely in the end.

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  10. Yokele, now is the time to go to your happy place. No, not the liquor cabinet -- that's Dolores' happy place. Sit in front of your alter, meditate, try to learn the lesson the universe is presenting. Then, calmly and serenely, begin to rip back, stitch by stitch, and try to incorporate that lesson. You might want to include a dharma doll in this exercise.

    Did you ever think that the universe might be trying to tell you to use lifelines? I'M not telling you, so don't pluck MY eyeballs out. Is it possible you may eradicating some flibertigibbit karma.

    Love you. If you want, I'll take a day off work and tink for you. (That's the mark of a true friend!)

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  11. I don't use life lines, either. There are just some of us who like to look danger in the face and laugh... live on the edge...

    And sometimes go down in flames -or at least rip 40 rows of lace. Such is the price of greatness ;)

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  12. ARgh. Lifelines only work if you are lucky enough to have them in the right place. I move mine every few rows, so I probably would have had to frog just as far back as you.

    If it makes you feel any better, I am pregnant and have had to frog something as easy as the baby surprise jacket 7 times already. My stitch markers fall out or I don't pay attention and I keep screwing it up. Ha ha! Madness.

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  13. Didn't you leave out the verse that goes, "Blam, blam, sock-tucking gun in a ditch!!"

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  14. Anonymous9:56 AM

    This is what I love about your blog. It's so literate!

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  15. Anonymous10:07 AM

    Well, crap. Sometimes the knitting gods just feel like thumbing their noses at someone. But look at the bright side. At least you didn't finish the whole thing before you noticed.

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  16. Oh Franklin, I am so sorry. I know how hard that is to do, but just remember it will be much better when you get it reworked.
    Hugs and a glass of wine helps.

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  17. Anonymous10:23 AM

    Should have used lifelines? I would never say such a thing, not least because I've never used one myself.

    I do feel there's much to be said for a carefully-placed after-the-fact lifeline when one has a bit of ripping back to do, however.

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  18. Anonymous10:37 AM

    g*****n m****r f*****g s*n of a m****r f*****g b***h.

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  19. Franklin.
    I understand. I just did the same thing BUT with a pattern much less complicated. So I basically whizzed through it, got myself a huge expresso packed latte for a reward then went back to it.
    I am a ripper and it would have made me nuts to leave it.
    If I had left it there I would have gone nuts.

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  20. Anonymous10:51 AM

    Oh, dear. I've so been where you are now. I always rip back and fix too even though I know no one else will notice. You are not alone. I'm with you with every ripped stitch. Mary

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  21. Oh man, bummer on knitting gods smackdown. But, dude, why weren't you writing Cliff Notes when I was in college?

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  22. I seriously respect your decision. I would have kept knitting. ;)

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  23. You're braver than I. I have a nasty error in the Mystery Shawl I was working on so nicely. And I can't even bring myself to do the necessarily fiddling ripping out. I just come across it occasionally and weep softly.

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  24. What andrea rusin said.

    I've learned a lot about lace and knitting in general by having to rip and tink and pick up sts. I am now fearless. Almost fearless, anyway.

    Kinda like the Flying Wallendas. Most of the time you cross the wire safely. But sometimes you fall.

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  25. Oh noooo! I know exactly how you feel! People can tell me repeatedly that I am the only one who will notice a mistake. But that's just it - I NOTICE. And lace ripping is the absolute worst. Ugh.

    I wish you happier knitting!

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  26. I love your version of Oedipus! so much better than the way we covered it in high school...

    And how could I possibly tell you to use lifelines when I don't use them myself? It's not so much that I think I knit so well I don't need them, but more that when I come to a spot where it might be convenient to put it one, I'm in such a situation (like on a plane, with no extra yarn or a darning needle, etc.) where it's impossible to do so. So I shrug mentally and move on. Sometime, though, I'm sure this approach will come back and bite me. hard.

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  27. Lifelines wouldn't have helped anyway, because when the Fates are giggling at you you're going to put the lifeline in AFTER the mistake to begin with. Also, me? I have a nasty habit of removing one lifeline after putting in the next one, so if I'd been lifelining that piece I'd already be a couple of lifelines beyond the point where it'd do any good. So totally - no lifeline comments. I suppose we'd also be wise to avoid remarks about attention paid to other coffee-shop customers instead of to lace charts? (Especially given that the coffee-shop episode was so entertaining that I had to read it aloud to three different people?) Yeah, I'll shut up now. Except to offer sincere sympathy, because like so many others here I've been where you are, felt your pain, and responded to it exactly the same way, right down to the last "Zit!" and the last stitch ripped. Sigh. But won't you feel good about it when it's re-done right....

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  28. I know! I know! I'd want to rip, too, but no one is going to wear it FLAT.

    That doesn't help, does it?

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  29. Anonymous11:32 AM

    Franklin, really, how could you NOT have noticed you skipped a row?? It's so trucking obvious to the naked eye! :::insert rolling Brooklynite eyes:::

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  30. oh your words are great, made me smile but I can hear your fristration...us knitters know a missed row when we see one!

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  31. Your first and last paragraphs are (rhymes with) plucking priceless! Can I borrow the eye-gouging threat if I ever need it? I'll credit you, I promise.

    Sorry about the rip-out; you're doing the right thing. I almost never do life lines and it's not because I'm so freakin' good.

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  32. Oh, Franklin. And here I thought your Zen-like calm was unshakeable!

    Whenever I set out to make something really nice, I say to myself "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." Of course, the baby blanket I am working on has some errors, but I don't intend to point them out to anybody. And since I made the same error at every corner, we can go with the 'design element' dodge.

    Ruth

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  33. So maybe this will amuse you. You were in my dream a week or two ago. I went to see you to talk to you about something. You, for reasons I cannot imagine, were living in a house I used to own in Syracuse (now you're saying, when hell freezes over...). Anyhow, you said, 'oh good, you can help choose a watch'. We were sitting around, looking at a watch catalog and talking about the merits of digital vs analog and liner vs spatial time, other folks were around, maybe knitting, I don't remember. One of your housemates came in (must be Dolores made into a woman, she was kinda bitchy) and she said 'ok, you all need to leave now'. So, I'm collecting up my stuff (no idea what stuff) and something had fallen into the couch cushion, so I figured I should check under the couch. And what did I see? Rows of stacks of hand-knit socks, all with incredible color work on the cuffs (like Latvian socks), and a wonderful aroma of good wooly lanolin. I thought to myself...wow. So, you'll be relived to know it was just an odd dream, and very unlike the odd dream I recently had that started with me sniffing Leanord Nimoy's hair... ahem.

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  34. Yes, there must be ripping.
    In one of my favourite books on Shetland lace, the Rose Lace illustration is published with a glaring error across one row.
    I fret at the sight of it.

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  35. Some of us are Virgos and are precipitously meticulous while we count how many angels fit on the head of a pin. I am a Virgo, so I know. A true technician, you are. May you have a better weekend.

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  36. Anonymous12:28 PM

    Much empathy. Now it's the time for the zen of the thing (hard as that can be to remember). I don't use lifelines. I'd rip, just as you are. Perfection is not required. Excellence is worth the extra effort.

    Philosophy of lifelines: I figure the time I'd spend putting in lifelines in a few decades of knitting is (1) more extensive than and (2) less enjoyable than the alternative (messing around getting that last row picked up right).

    I've used one once. It was fine. I put it in because I *knew* there was a 75% chance I'd be ripping back.

    Onward, banners flying, even when going in reverse!

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  37. Maybe you should have just married your mom. Probably less painful.

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  38. thanks for the addition to my lesson plan on Oedipus. My students will definitely understand the concept better.

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  39. This is why I'm terrified to knit lace. There's not enough sour apple vodka on the planet.

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  40. Oy vey. You're a good and dedicated man to rip. I myself have the habit of starting every lace project over three times because I always make stupid-ass mistakes. But if were as far along as you - I'm not sure even my OCD would get me to rip back all those rows. I hope you have lots of good wine around to get you through it (rewards for afterwards, not before of course!)

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  41. ROFLMAO -- Oh, I feel for you darlin' I am just laughing at the last line. You're too effen funny -- even when you're angry!

    Sorry about the error -- You know I'd have left it -- and I know you have to fix it.....You're a MUCH better knitter than me. For sure! I would not even LOOK there ever again :)

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  42. I support your decision...since I made a similar decision while knitting my own lace project a little while ago.

    Surly you will be happier in the end for this decision.

    We miss you here at the retreat.

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  43. Oh! Can I feel your pain! I have used lifelines and not used them. Doesn't matter. If the Knitting Gods want to screw with you, they will find a way.
    Do a little chanting and plan a great reward upon completion. That usually works for me.
    In my case, it took 3 years before I could knit myself a pair of socks without having a major meltdown at least 3 times.

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  44. Wow. OK. No possibility of faking all the other repeats to be similar, I suppose?... but you're right, you'd always know...

    Courage, mon brave, and all that...

    And as far as I'm concerned lifelines go after each repeat, anyway, so wouldn't have helped at all...

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  45. You are not, contrary to your feelings about the whole thing, Sisyphus. When I have to go back to de-screw-up my knitting, I try to remember something the Harlot wrote somewhere (and I paraphrase); I like knitting,and correcting mistakes is knitting, so I am just knitting more.

    And my dentist wonders why my back teeth are so flat. (I blame my students.)

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  46. I would have (who's kidding,here HAVE done)the same thing and a-ripping I went. Frustrating, yes. Ultimately satisfying? You bet.

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  47. Oh holy crow, dude, could you possibly *be* funnier? "..., Zit! Zit!" Red lace *has* to be fixed; otherwise it would just be tawdry.

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  48. I have learned to live with my own imperfection, as a human being and as a knitter. "Close enough for government work" is my motto. "No one will ever notice." "Not bad." That's all I aim for.

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  49. Anonymous5:26 PM

    uh, maybe I am not looking carefully cause I don't see any mistake...

    perhaps you should have gone on the men's knitting retreat after all.

    but I gotta admire your patient fortitude to rip back.

    (not me, if I were knitting this)

    anne marie in philly

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  50. "Truck! Pluck! You smother clucking Tina Yotherbucker! What the ducking plucking truck! Zit! Zit!"

    Laughing my head off here. There should be a t-shirt!

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  51. I've done that same rhyme many a time and yet I've still not learned to put in a life line. I still tell myself "Oh what can happen? I'll put in a life line on the next row".

    I think that "Zit" will become my new word.

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  52. I am copying down that entire epithet so that I may commit it to memory and think of you with it's every use. Onward noble Knitter!

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  53. OK, now - you know me for a plebeian common knitter of toques and projects suitable for the Home for Demented Underachievers....but having said that, may I suggest merely that -- you're WRONG? In spite of all that poetic language, as well. There IS no problem with the knitting on that shawl. The *problem* is that you somehow got a stoopid green arrow stuck on it! If you get rid of that it'll look just fine (are you sure Dolores didn't put it in there just to give you fits?) Oh, and my verification word should be added to your Arsenal of Foul Language; I know I'm adding it to mine: PONGF (in your pipe and smoke it) Or alternatively, "Pongf, and the horse you rode in on!"

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  54. Thanks for giving us a chuckle at your expense.

    I feel your pain. I'm spending my (Canadian) long weekend, dealing with projects gone awry. There are several.

    One is a Anne Hanson's Beefields and I had to rip back most of the swarm section. Because it patterns on every row, there's no graceful way to rip back just a couple of repeats. It's going into hibernation while I recuperate from the rip.

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  55. The lace gods are like that.

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  56. seriously, i rip for things other people swear isnt there. but i see them. ive finished huge projects to the point of being ready to seam it all together and then at that point, decided i should have changed this one tiny thing that again, nobody but me would notice.
    i agree, if you are engaging in an project regardless of size or whether its a gift or for you, why let anything that isnt just how you want it stand??
    uh, i also let huge obvious mistakes stay, you know, cause THOSE dont bother me..
    im a bit loopy. have i mentioned that before?

    cheers.

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  57. Ouch. I didn't use lifelines when I made my first shawl, and spent a lot of time tinking back (I tink many rows, because I have a hard time ripping back even with a good basic wool). I just didn't like how they felt in the project.

    The time we spend on projects like this, aiming for perfection and doing the work to achieve it are good for us... or so I keep telling myself.

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  58. Shall I send chocolate?
    Loved the rhyming song, and am awed by your knitterly integrity. Beautiful work just the same.

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  59. Anonymous10:23 PM

    Franklin, dear, from one perfectionist to another, will it make you feel any better to know that I did exactly the same thing (skip a row and swear like you did) in my Unst Lace Stole and didn't notice it until, like, 26 rows later? Of course I ripped it back and fixed it, as far as I'm concerned there isn't any other choice.

    No, i'm not a lifeline user either...

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  60. Anonymous10:41 PM

    Oh Franklin, I just love you. Love you, love you, LOVE YOU!!

    thank you for sharing, as only you can, the ups and downs of the myriad joys of knitting.

    and I LOVE that you are merely Temporarily deflated - Take That you bad ol' skipped row! Can't keep a good man down!

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  61. Anonymous10:42 PM

    Thank you for the funniest moment of my day...No, make that the funniest moment of my week. All the more poignant because, as I near completion of my first lace shawl, I, perfectionist sur tout, have had the exact same reaction. But I've left them as momentos of my first 'real lace'. I'm sure my mother-in-law won't mind.
    I'm over here crying. Let me go read that again. Thanks for the moment. And the work is beautiful.

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  62. But if you enjoyed knitting it the first time, you'll enjoy it one more time, too. If only I had a dollar for every time I've done that -- well, I might not actually be rich, what with inflation and all -- but I'd definitely be taking a nice vacation this year.

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  63. Anonymous12:40 AM

    Oh my god. Oh my god. I had to go check all the lozenges on mine, and have a drink (alcoholic.) Oh my god.

    I've ripped back this shawl. (And believe me when I say, do not let it drop from your needles.) Oh my god.

    I'm on row 129 of the border, I would set the thing on fire if this happened.

    (I'm so sorry to say this, but I read the next page of instructions of the inner border. There are 136 bloody rows.)

    What are you knitting yours for? I'm hoping to wear mine at my wedding, which is soon. (Argh!) I'm guessing two months for the outer border, and I will take knitting leave if I have to.

    Oh my god, my goddesses and the little fishes. I've ripped back one row, and it hurt. More than one?

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  64. Anonymous4:54 AM

    I'm putting off fixing my own knitting problems and reading your blog instead. Thanks for making me giggle through my own knitting catastrophe (effing cables...).

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  65. Oh! I stand in breathless admiration of your maturity... the pain...

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  66. Franklin when I read your blog on the 6th and then more importantly on the 8th, I decided that I will try lace knitting. Something small, as you suggested. While I obviously have not had this particular pain, I do know the pain of frogging. After getting up from the floor from laughing, I became even MORE determined to do this and I am sure there will be some frogging, I am, like you, a perfectionist...I'm just hoping that I don't cry and that I do what you did....swear, rip and re-do. BRAVO!

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  67. Anonymous8:02 AM

    Ouch times 10 to the 10th power!

    Here is my question - can you thread a life line through below said missing row?

    I also have fracked up lace knitting on more than one occasion and still have not learned the importance of life lines.

    But!

    I have been able to thread through a strand of dental floss and saved my arse a time or two.

    Maybe an offering to the knitting gods will help!

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  68. Anonymous8:12 AM

    On some thing or other, I was tinking back several rows in a public place. A novice knitter watched, intrigued by this mysterious stitch action, and finally asked, "What *are* you doing?"

    I'm not even that fastidious, and have been known to fudge lots of knitting, but if it is going to show glaringly, it must be ripped. Mmmmm, unless you skip the same row in the other lozenge sections? Then you have just modified the pattern. I'm curious now, though, what will you do with an enormous fire engine red lace shawl, with or without imperfections?

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  69. Learn to embrace your imperfections. I say that only because I cast off a very, very easy lace scarf last night - gorgeous yarn, graceful pattern, shot through with the knitting quirks and idiosyncrasies that can only mean "I knit this." Otherwise, I'm just a machine. Plus, it was kid mohair and an bitch to tink.

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  70. I can empathize fully. I knit at least 12 repeats of lace pattern in Orangina and made a mistake. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to fix the mistake, then ripped. Sometimes that perfectionist gene stinks.

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  71. Meh. Lifelines are for wusses. Ripping back is the noble, the mature response, and it's the lack of a lifeline that allows your greatness of spirit to shine.

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  72. I feel your pain.

    I channel your Pluck! Nuck! Stuck! Sassa Frassa Rassen Jassen )()&(*&(*)(*)(*_)(*&&^^^% knitting rant.

    Serenity now.

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  73. Oh! oh. oh.. that makes my heart ache for you. so sorry! i applaud your need to rip back - think you can explain it to my husband? *sigh* And I'm not even a pefectionist.
    May this be your only "trucking' mistake in such beauty.

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  74. Hey, wait! Is there an English expletive that I don't know? What cuss word rhymes with "Tina"?

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  75. I've had a rather rough weekend, and your post was EXACTLY what I needed! I almost fell off my chair because I was laughing so hard at your rhymes. Thank You!

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  76. *pfft* Lifelines are for wimps. I have no doubt you'll sort it out.

    The MSKR was fun, but we missed you. Do drop us a line sometime.

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  77. Anonymous6:47 PM

    Don't be suprised if Harry starts using off-color phrases like "mother-trucker."

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  78. And I thought it was so neat of the designer to have worked all those little infinity symbols into a "Wedding Ring" Shawl. Ooops.

    I am sorry and greatly admire your ethics of making it right.

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  79. Anonymous7:41 PM

    Nope, won't hear that from me - not ever

    I never use lifelines or markers (except at the beginning of a round).

    I like the exhilarating feeling of whizzing around the row without a net, especially on Sharon Miller and Hazel Carter patterns.

    Funny, the only person who didn't look at me strangely when I described this wonderful "careening" feeling at the local S&B was The Harlot. Think that's a coincidence?

    I'd rip it too, with likely as colourful an accompaniment.

    Leslie - knitting therapist

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  80. that was the best non swearing swear I ever heard!
    Peace.

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  81. I'd have ripped too, but only after a while.

    I would have been so PO'd when I first found the mistake, that I wouldn't have trusted myself to rip it out without doing significant damage.

    I usually make the WIP sit in a corner until it's learned its lesson. Then I rip and re-start.

    I don't use lifelines either; I'm too lazy. Which, when I say it, sounds contradictory.

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  82. Thanks. Now I have Tom Lehrer's song "Oedipus Rex" going through my head.

    There once was a man named Oedipus Rex.
    You may have heard about his odd complex.
    His name appears in Freud's index
    Cuz he loved his motherrr.


    That sucks about the missing row though. Been there.

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  83. The curse of perfectionism. Poor you.

    Go knit something really simple til it doesn't hurt any more.

    Still, if you're going to do such Black Belt level Ninja knitting you may as well Get It Right.

    Then make sure you use lifelines for the rest of the shawl!

    I'm currently knitting Evelyn A Clark's "Swallowtail Shawl". Noticed I'd made a real muck up of one bit Saturday (while watching the FA Cup final - which Our Team WON!).

    Frogged back to ball.

    Started again.

    NOW I understand the pattern, & can, generally, sort out further minor glitches.

    I'm leaving the BBN stuff to you, though!

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  84. Anonymous9:08 AM

    This may have been a moment when the dear ElizZim might have said to incorporate your fashion-joi-de-vie into the pattern.

    But I'm with you. No one may have noticed and you may have been able to cross your eyes until you saw the shawl pirouetting like a pirate in a tutu and still that one little row would have stood out.

    No, correct that, the absense of that row would have stood out. And frankly, a wedding shawl is prolly not a moment to rediscover zero with the Mayans. If you get a little further verklempt please just cry into a nice pinot noir. It can be quite therapeutic.

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  85. Anonymous10:07 AM

    Am I wrong, or is that where you stopped to take the picture on Thursday? You did that for us, and the gods still mocked.
    jen

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  86. Oh, gawd, just when I was going to suggest maybe using a lifeline, the last paragraph jumped up and made me laugh so hard, it threw me into a coughing fit. Just call me beeotch. (I'm now using a lifelife in a swatch, just to see if I can get through the thing!)

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  87. Argh, I deeply sympathize. I would rip it out too, because knowing that error was there would destroy my pleasure in the lace. And no, I never use lifelines either. Lifelines are for weenies.

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  88. Thank you for making this mistake, because I needed a laugh, and while I hate to laugh at another's lace misfortune, having had a bit of my own, I actually laughed out loud, and that isn't easy to accomplish on Mondays. Thanks, you are one funny Tina Yotherbucker!!

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  89. Anonymous3:30 PM

    Could have been worse - you could be knitting it in Kid Silk Haze.

    I spit in the eye of Death because after you have had to rip back KSH, you fear nothing... except ripping back more KSH.

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  90. Oh Franklin, I am so sorry you suffered a lace calamity, but oh how I laughed at your rhyming reproduction of your reaction!

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  91. Oh, Franklin! You always make me laugh! I feel your pain. Thank you for sharing your life with us! You are the greatest!

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  92. Anonymous10:15 PM

    Zit! Zit!

    That was my favorite part. I say that often.

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  93. this is the face of lace...lace will do you in every time. I did a lace shawl in 2005 and it took 12 months.

    I feel your pain, in face I know your pain.

    Ella

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  94. See, we all make errors...face in previous e-mail is suppose to be in fact...

    I leave you with this "everything has a crack in it, that's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen

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  95. It's a good thing you explained the mistake ... because I sure couldn't see it by just looking at the arrow. But then ... you're a GREAT knitter and I'm a dabbler. I would have ripped back myself for a BIG mistake tho. I only leave the "little" ones in and forget they were even there.

    This shawl is going to be a beauty!

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  96. The problem is...I truly BELIEVE in lifelines. But I also am truly SURE I don't need them...until I definitely DO. Always, that's too late.
    (sigh)
    Rip-it dear. You're ABOSLUTELY right it will be the ONLY thing you notice. Just ask me what I see when I look at my (much, much simpler) Queen of Hearts? Yup. The row I call "the Broken Hearts!"
    lolol
    And I LOVE your creativity on what you really said...!
    (thank goodness, there's really no relation between you and Oedipus, beyond the "gouging out eyes" thingy!)
    (((hugs)))

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  97. Anonymous11:21 AM

    I think I'll take Antigone's way out of this one and whine alot!

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  98. Anonymous2:23 PM

    I just found your blog today, and this post is the funniest thing I've read in ages. I'm truly sorry about the skipped row; that really sucks.

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  99. Anonymous3:37 PM

    ...you don't know me, and I think I've only commented, maybe...once? But I'm one of your biggest new fans (definitely - just ask my wife how much I talk about you, and always as if I KNOW you) and I have to register here my EXTREME jealousy that you're going to Toronto for the Harlot's bday/wwkip day!!!! I sooooooooo want to be you right now! Up until this moment, I just wanted to be your best friend, but now, I want to be you. I've never wanted to be a man before....let alone a man who has sex with men; lesbian thing and all....
    have fun!!!!!

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  100. Oh, Franklin, you are just too, too funny. I was laughing out loud and got my whole office in on the joke as I tried, with some success, I might add, to read aloud your "rhymes with" section.

    Oh, dear, you screwed up and made still made art (and laughter) with it.

    Well done!

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  101. that yarn looks strangely familiar... I'm knitting a Diamond Fantasy shawl in something very similar (red Trekking sock yarn) Yum.

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  102. Have I told you lately that I love you? Gawd.

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  103. Anonymous5:46 PM

    You are better than me. When I make a mistake, I point it out to my knitting group and say "I don't have to remove it, it's not a big deal". Then I go home and have spasms of guilt and low self-esteem and next thing I'm ripping it out. When I show it to the group next time, they point and laugh and remind me that it wasn't "a big deal". Grrrrrrrrr.

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