A Little Catastrophy With My Knitting Project

I'm sure I have lots of company when I say don't you just love it when you are going along so nicely and all of a sudden a loud screech comes out of your mouth - oh no look just what happened.

Well, that happened to me today. I was working on this Cable Scarf (in fact that is what it is called and I love the design), it's made up of ribbing and cabling. I am working on 518 stitches on a number US 6 circular needle. Maybe some of you might know what I am about to say. All of a sudden it happened - the coil came apart from the needle part and there started the tumbling of my stitches. This is a regular circular needle not interchangeable. Panic started up. But then I said that won't solve anything. So I took a deep breath and started thinking what is the fastest way to get those stitches back on a needle before they start running like a pair of stockings. Thank goodness I had another #6 circular needle.

As a new knitter sometimes what happens is that you are working on your project and you pull too hard and pull the stitches right off the needle. Oh no - look what I did. So it can happen on straight needles, circular needles and especially double pointed needles.

Now if this happens to you where your circular needle breaks and you don't have the same size, go down a size because you don't want to stretch the stitches out of proportion. And that would make it easier to pick the stitches up if you feel that crazy panic rising. That is if you have other sizes of circulars. Or just to get them back on a needle - use a straight. Nine times out of ten you will not be working on 500 stitches. Another thing you can do is take some extra yarn you have and a tapestry needle, thread it and run the yarn through all the stitches until you are able to either buy another size needle if you don't have the same size. Yes, there are other reasons for tapestry needles besides weaving in ends.

As for me, I used everything in sight to catch those stitches. I used the broken circular needle, a stitch holder and the cable needle. Then to pick up stitches that were undone I used my crochet hook and held the one next to it with my finger so that as I was fixing the one stitch the next one would not undo itself. Focus and try not to panic is the key. I didn't care if they were put on backwards because I knew I could fix them later. The object of this craziness was to get those stitches back on something.

I was trying to preserve my cable row I had just finished but a part of the row it was easier for me to just take it out and pick up those stitches instead of fumbling to pick them up as finished cable twists. If you haven't worked with cables yet you will understand this when you do.

As you can see from the picture most of the stitches I could pick up with cables in tack onto another circular needle. But there are those that are on that broken circular needle and a stitch holder (the stitch holder is another wonderful tool that can have multiple purposes.

So the next time you drop a stitch or two even more think of me. If I can handle over 500 stitches to get them back on track you can tackle a couple of stitches. Yes I know what I am doing but I still don't want that to happen. And don't panic because you think - I'm a new knitter and I don't know what I am doing. Just wait a minute, breath and then look at those stitches and think of how you can get them back on the needle. You can do it. And if it is a couple of stitches remember you can use a safety pin, stitch marker even a paper clip just to hold the stitches until you are able to pick it up with your needle.

Continue to have fun with your craft. Until next time.