A Knitter’s Blog

Is the need to unravel your worst nightmare? Do you suffer from live-stitch phobia? Do you have a project hidden in your stash that was never finished because you couldn’t face the fact that you had to unravel 10 inches and redo the knitting?

You are not alone. All of us have been there in our knitting life. I just don’t want any of you to get stuck there.

A mistake during the actual knitting of the fabric no longer causes me anxiety or frustration.  To unravel is just another part of the knitting process.

Those of you who are new to knitting jargon may not be familiar with the term frog. To frog is interchangeable with the phrase to unravel. Frog derives from the sound frogs make.  Some clever person equated “rip it, rip it” with frog noises. The term caught on.

To unravel knitted fabric, remove the stitches from the working needle. Gently tug on the working yarn and pull. Stitches will be undone.

In preparation, have a circular needle handy that is two or three sizes smaller than the working needle.  Mark the error in the fabric. Depending on the pattern, you may decide to rip back a few rows below the error. Unravel the fabric back to the marker and then to the beginning of the row or the round.

You will have a piece of fabric with live stitches. Enter the fear factor. Formerly, the thought of successfully getting the live stitches back on the needle was a source of great anxiety. Now, the same feat is a piece of cake.

The trick is to use a needle that is smaller than the needle with which the fabric was worked. If the yarn is prone to splitting, then I use a needle that is much smaller.  With the left hand, hold the fabric just below the live stitches. The thumb and index finger holding the fabric will force the stitches to stand up. Insert the smaller needle into the stitches. At this point, don’t worry whether the stitches are seated correctly. The goal is to get the stitches back onto a needle.

I use a circular needle because of the double points. When all the stitches are safely on the needle, slide the end with the working yarn up to the shaft that you will hold in your left hand. With the working needle (the needle used to knit the fabric), rip back one more row. Insert the working needle into the stitch below the one on the needle and pull the working yarn. You are now below the error and ready to re-knit the fabric. Your knitting has returned to perfection status.

On the first row, you may find that some of your stitches are seated incorrectly. Seat the stitch on the needle correctly before it is worked.

There will be a pile of yarn that looks like curly spaghetti. This is not a problem. If you made the error fairly recently, you can re-knit with the same yarn and it will uncurl as it sets.

However, if the fabric has been sitting in the back of the closet for a year, cut the yarn, and attach new yarn. Wind the curly spaghetti into a hank. You can do this by winding it around your knees. Tie it in four places. Then fill the bath tub a few inches with cool water. Dip the hank in the water until it is thoroughly wet. Hang the hank over the shower head. When the hank is dry, the yarn will be as good as new.

Using a smaller needle really is the key for picking up stitches easily. But more important than having a trick up your sleeve, is your mindset. The idea of frogging should hold no negative emotion. It is just one more technique mastered by an accomplished knitter.

Anytime spent knitting is wonderful time. Re-knitting an area of fabric is still knitting. Rather than knitting to get to the finish, slow down and enjoy the process.

Filed under: Knitting, Techniques by cwulster