In this case, it was operator error.  I forgot to leave a place to duplicate stitch his name.  The chart has a heart and holly leaves, and says to leave it blank if you are going to add the name afterward.  I just blindly followed the chart this time.  You can see that I have already threaded the circular needle below the heart and leaves in preparation to cut the top of the finished stocking off.  The stocking is knit cuff down and has a hem, so the trick this time is that I need to knit upwards and make the hem going the opposite direction it is normally knit it.

You only need to snip one stitch above the “lifeline” and unravel around.

Snip one stitch

Unravel Around

The top is removed and ready to put on the correct needle and to be re-knit the opposite direction.

Rag Top

After re-knitting, the named wss duplicate stitched and the stocking was hung by the chimney with care.

Christened

I threaded two smaller circular needles into the stitches above and below the hole to act as lifelines to prevent unraveling when I cut it in half (just like a tourniquet stops bleeding from a severed limb).

The Tourniquet

I cut out the whole section of knitting where the hole was.

The Amputation

I re-knit the section and grafted the two halves together.

The Transplant and Suturing

All finished and almost as good as new.

Successful Surgery

I also knit a stocking for his brother for his first Christmas last year that was not without its own problms.   No dog involved in that one, just a huge chart reading error on my part.  I always tell my students that the only reason I know how to fix mistakes is because I make them all the time.

Here is a picture of a fix in process on a baby blanket I knit a few years ago.  I don’t remember the exact problem, but it was probably a misplaced yarn over or k2tog that I didn’t notice until I was about 6 rows past.  I knit over to the section of stitches where the error was, dropped down the 11 stitches in that repeat of the pattern to the row where I needed to make the correction, picked them up on a needle and then reknit each row of the repeat using the strands behind.    It’s easier to do something like this using needles a size smaller that what you were knitting the project with and a circular needle or dpn so that you can do all the work on the right side by sliding the needles back and forth.

Want to see another?

This one was a problem in a feather and fan lace patterned blanket called the Hemlock Ring.  You can see the chart laying behind the project.  I had to drop about 40 stitches down 10 or 12 rows to fix this one.   It was actually a bit fun to do.  (I’m not sure what that says about me though).   Next time, we will talk about taking a scissors to the knitting in order to fix it.

These socks seemed like they were endless too. The yarn is Regia Galaxy and it looks like rings of Saturn if you get the correct gague when you knit. Needless to say, I worked hard to get the correct gauge and when I didn’t see the rings forming to my satisfaction, I would rip all or parts and start again, either knitting more loosely or more tightly. It didn’t help that I changed dpn between socks since I didn’t like the 5 inch ones I was using, and even though I stayed on US size 0 needles, the change made a difference. Finally though I am ready to take out the waste yarn and knit the afterhthought heel. Hopefully they will be finished soon.

This is made with 50 grams of Kidsilk Haze which is a kid mohair yarn.  This is one of the colorways designed by Kaffe Fasset and is self striping.  The cool thing about it is that it is knit flat  on the bias.  You begin with a provisional cast on.  (My favorite is the one where you crochet waste yarn over your knitting needle) then when you finish, you unzip the cast on and graft the 80 live stitches at the end to the beginning.  The first couple of stitches on the grafting were tricky, but then I got into an easy rhythm and it went smoothly (or at least as smoothly as grafting 80 stitches in mohair can go).  It is beautiful and warm.  See my Ravelry project for the details.

I had a great class this morning at Silk Road Textiles teaching Rigid Heddle Weaving.  It is another terrific way to use luscious knitting yarns and you can quickly make a scarf or other item.    Here are two students threading the heddles on the Cricket loom you get to use as part of the class fee.  They will take the looms home overnight to weave some more, and come back tomorrow to take the scarf of the loom and learn about finishing.  It’s a great way to get a taste of weaving and using a Rigid Heddle loom before buying one.

I knit a baby hat for a friend’s newborn. I used the school colors since our kids are in high school band together. It is a small version of the hat I teach in one of my classes. I really like knitting baby items. I didn’t knit when my kids were babies; so I don’t really have any keepsakes I knit for them from their baby years.

A new FO (finished object to the uninitiated).  It is one of the nicest things I have woven so far for sure.  I love everything about this baby blanket.  The Ms and Os weaving pattern is so much fun to do and the finished project is so soft and pretty.  I plan on making more and trying out other yarns.   Check it out the project details on my Ravelry project page.   Now back to your regularly schedule knitting.

Weaving Ms & Os is almost as addictive as eating M&Ms. This is my first really wide project on my loom. It takes almost the full width at 34 and 1/4 inches and is going to be a small blanket. The project is so wide. I had to take over 100 heddles off each shaft to have enough room for the warp. To think I spent days getting heddles sorted so I could put 200 on each shaft is a little ironic now.