Longies Knitting Club: Part 2 - Page 2

[Carolinamidwife]

OMG! I got it, I finally got it. I was purling wrong because I was bringing the yarn around from the back, not starting with it in the front.

I got my "knit 2 purl 2" mantra going on and I did 3 rows last night very easily. Yippee!

My main concern is that I don't know how to pick up dropped stitches or pull out rows so I am all paranoid about making mistakes.

What do you do if you get confused and can't remember if you just knitted or purled?

[pb_and_j]

Thanks Monica The F&F pattern can be found here. It's for a soaker and pants and you can customize it for any size, yarn or needles. I am really looking forward to trying it! I wonder how long it will take to knit pants to fit a 4 yo though... probably a month! lol

Amy, you can look at the sts and tell if it's a knit stitch or a purl stitch. A purl st will look like a little bump and a knit st will look like a "v." Take a good look next time you are working on it and you should be able to tell. It took me a while to figure that out but once you do, it's much easier and you don't have to worry about keeping a mental count of how many knits and how many purls you are doing.

Do you have a knitting book? I prefer to "unknit" mistakes rather than take out the needles and rip it out. You just insert the needle into the st below and then pull out the yarn. That is probably not the best description... if you have a book it should tell you how or you could probably do a search for "fixing knitting mistakes" and it will tell you more. I just tried a Google search, but my kids are whining in the other room, lol.

Anyway, I'm glad you're getting it! Can't wait to see the finished product!

[Carolinamidwife]

Thanks Julie! I do have a knitting book but for some reason it never occured to me to look for info on fixing mistakes.

Does anyone know if Knitting for Dummies is helpful?

I read ahead in the pattern and it looks like it's going to get complicated... I'm kind of scared!

[Carolinamidwife]

Bwah. I screwed up the ribbing at the top. I kept going, I couldn't stand to pull it all out... it should be OK because there will be a drawstring, right?

Does anyone have pics of their completed longies from the LTK pattern?

[pb_and_j]

Amy, where did you mess up? It will probably be ok, but the ribbing may be "off." One thing I have learned is that I would rather rip and fix a mistake than work for hours and hours on something only to be unhappy in the end b/c there are mistakes that I should have fixed. I'm not telling you that you have to rip it all out, but I don't want you to be disappointed later either, kwim?

The pic I posted is from Theresa's pattern. If you look back for the other Longies Knitting Club pattern, there are pics on there too.

HTH~

[Carolinamidwife]

i messed up the ribbing above the drawstring holes. it looks fine because it picks up normally after the holes. it just looks like a weird pattern. grr... i am going to leave it because i think only i will know it was a mistake, lol.

[huskrkid]

I just finished another pair of LTK longies last night! LOL One thing I am a little disappointed in is that I used some hand-painted yarn that had some huge variations in the skeins, so one leg looks really different from the other. It was all dyed at the same time, but I guess that 's what you get. It looks fine, but I see it. I'll see if I can load up a picture later. They are still drying from their lanolizing.

I want to try the F&F pattern too.

Anyone ventured into shorts from the longies pattern yet? I may try that in a few weeks.

Julie, yours turned out Beauuuuuuuutiful!!

Sheena, drive on, girl! You can do it!!

[Carolinamidwife]

I couldn't find pics from past clubs... I'll try again.

Here is a pic of my progress so far:

Longies

They look wonky but it's just the angle.

I also have a flaw that I thought was a dropped stitch but when I counted I still have 84... here is a blurry pic:

Flaw

I don't know what it is and now that I am about to start the short rows I don't know how to fix it. :

[huskrkid]

I wouldn't worry much about the flaw. You will be the only person who sees it! You can always weave a little piece of thread through it if it's buggin you. Much easier than tearing out all that progress. Believe me! I tore apart a whole soaker & started from scratch once & it was done!

That's beatuiful yarn & you are doing great!

[Carolinamidwife]

Thanks!

OK, I really want to ignore the flaw, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to become a huge hole someday, lol.

Then wish me luck, I am going to go start the short rows now. I have no idea how to wrap, lol.

[pb_and_j]

Amy~ Here's the other thread: Longies Knitting Club

I agree, that flaw doesn't look bad at all. Once you wash it, stuff like that seems to blend in too. The color is really pretty too! What yarn is that?

[Carolinamidwife]

It's Galway lime heather, I really like it! I think I am more excited about all of the yarn possibilities than I am about the longies themselves, lol.

Going to check the link...

[Carolinamidwife]

I messed up so so bad. And then when I went to fix it I messed up even worse.

As soon as dh gets home I am going to have to rip out at least 2 more rows... I hope I can do it without unravelling the whole thing.

[pb_and_j]

Awww, sorry Amy!!! I ripped out my ribbing on my first pr 2 times. I also ripped a pr that was done to the legs before too.

It is sad ripping out But a finished product that looks fabulous is worth it!

[Carolinamidwife]

How do you rip out? I created the biggest flaw yet ripping out and it was the hardest thing I have done since giving birth.

Why did you have to rip out to the legs???

[huskrkid]

I think somewhere in the original longies knitting club is a tutorial by Theresa on how to do a rescue stitch. If I can find it I'll edit this & post the link. Once you figure that out it becomes much easier to rip, although still heartbreaking!!

It's on page 4 towards the bottom...

[Carolinamidwife]

Thank you! I may be able to save my work with that tip! MWAH!

[Carolinamidwife]

Whew! I saved it. I tried the lifeline technique and couldn't do it so in a moment of giving up I pulled out 3 rows thinking I was going to just pull it all out. Then I realized the loops were still there so I just threaded back in and it worked! I'm almost done with the short rows.

I wish there was a way to insert something in before a place you feel like you are going to screw up, KWIM? So that you could rip out back to before the mess-up without it being so traumatic, lol.

[Knittin' in the Shade]

I wish there was a way to insert something in before a place you feel like you are going to screw up, KWIM? So that you could rip out back to before the mess-up without it being so traumatic, lol.

There is, silly that's exactly what the lifeline is-you thread yarn through a row just before where you want to rip back to, this way once you rip to that threaded row, you won't be able to rip anymore.

If you want to add in a lifeline every 10 rows or so, in case you think you're going to mess up, then just use a yarn needle to thread through the stitches on the needle before you knit the next round.

Also, in general if you just rip gently, and slowly, you'll be able to pick up the loops again and just keep knitting. Wool stitches have a tendency to grab on another, so they won't just all go flying and pull out when you take them off the needle. If you were working with alpaca or rayon, then I'd say don't rip, LOL, cause those do tend to just fall apart when you take off the needle

Oh, last thing, that *flaw* that you showed a pic of, isn't really a falw. I'm betting that's the spot where you stopped knitting one night, and becuase the yarn was left in that one spot for a while, it stretched out the last stitch a bit. After one wash, it'll tighten up and youwon't even be able to see it anymore

[mamaMAMAma]

I meant to start a new thread... sorry!