This pouch has been knitted using leftover silk from the project pictured below (Silk Hose), which is going to be referred to in some length tonight...
As I have mentioned in yesterday's post, today I will tackle a long overdue subject closely related to stockings. (The timing is neat, although I am not talking here of your regular Christmas stockings!) Some months ago I received a parcel with (over) half knitted stockings and a brief note basically saying "Help!". I have a professional relationship with the person who sent it and was obviously keen to help out. Months went by and in several brief sessions, spread over a long period of time, I tackled the tangled threads, the fallen out needles, and having re-gained some visibility started examining the situation. The remaining part of this post is addressed to the maker of the stockings, but do read through it if you are curious about my troubleshooting methodology.
The problem was that the number of stitches in both stockings was incorrect, and the reason for this has managed to elude the knitter(s) who has/have been attempting to put things right before the whole thing got referred to me. One of the reasons it has taken me such a ridiculously long time to perform "the fix" is that I have promised a thorough written explanation of what and where went wrong. My diagnosis is as follows:
Stocking 1
52 sts in total – 2 sts too many compared with the pattern* instructions
When looking at the stocking positioned such as the faggoted (lace) section is at the bottom you can see that 14th decrease to the left (LS) and to the right side (RS) of the fagotted (lace) panel at the back are missing. I have marked this with red dots. This explains why there are 2 sts too many.
REMEDIAL ACTIONS:
We have a couple of options here.
1. We could frog all the way back to the missing decrease and correct the mistake. This option is preferred by perfectionists. The pros are that you will end up with a piece as close to perfection as is humanly possible. The cons are that it's a lot of work to correct a detail that most of the population will not even be aware of (even if you put it right under their noses and point to it!)
2. We can discreetly decrease these 2 sts.
Now, if these were my stocking I would frog. No questions about it. However, bearing in mind that they are not my stockings I will errr on the safe side and suggest that we discreetly fix the problem without wasting so much work. Think of your work (particularly at such a minuscule gauge) as knitted fabric and this will not bother you too much.
I am picking up the work right at the base of heel flap. However, as there are 2 sts too many as a result of missed decrease, I have “engineered” 2 decreases 3 rnds below the current rnd and fudged the excess yarn into the neighbouring sts. I could do this as the last person who worked this stocking got a little carried away and worked several more rnds without shaping after the last decrease than indicated by the pattern. I now have 50 sts, as required by the pattern.
Heel flap can now be worked as instructed in the pattern. I have done this and I have also worked Rnd 1, 2 & 3 of Gusset section. 52 sts (54-2) as in the pattern (as I have decreased 2 sts in Rnd 3). You are now ready to work Rnd 4 of Gusset section.
Please note that sts on needle 3 & 4 in the pattern are in fact on one needle here, which is due purely to insufficient amount of DPN's! Please remember this when continuing the work.
Stocking 2:
51 sts in total – 1 st too many compared with the pattern*
17 decreases (marked with blue dots) are detectable to the left and to the right side of the faggoted section, whereas there should be 18. However when measuring both stockings against each other it is clear that Stocking 2 is one decrease section shorter. So, if we were to follow the pattern, there should be 52sts at this stage. This means there is one st to few.
REMEDIAL ACTIONS:
I have identified that the next rnd of fagotted section is dec rnd and have worked it accordingly. Due to some inconsistency in the way the decreases have been placed in this stocking this means that decrease is perfectly placed on RS of lace, but is 1 rnd out on the LS of lace. This is not visible and can only be spotted when counting rnds carefully, hence we will leave it at that.
I then have proceeded to complete this section of work by knitting further 6 rnds without shaping, and working further 2 rnds as described in pattern (bottom of first column on page 76).
I am now ready to work the heel flap. However, as you will remember, before I have carried out the last decrease I had 51 sts on the needles. Now I have only 49 sts – 1 st is missing.
I have examined the stocking carefully and can say that the fagotted section and decreases appear to be correct (although - as I have already mentioned - the placing of decreases is a little inconsistent). Increases (marked with black dots) are fine too. This leads me to believe that the mistake is most likely somewhere in the plain st.st section of work. My guess would be that a st was unintentionally decreased. As it would be very time consuming and difficult to find this I will recommend the following solution that bypasses this investigative work.
Having arranged sts as described in the Heel Flap section (2nd column on page 76) I have 11 sts on one of the instep needles instead of 12. To adjust this I will increase by 1 st between needle with incorrect number of sts and needle holding 26 sts of heel flap.
I now have 50 sts, as required by the pattern.
Heel flap can now be worked as instructed in the pattern. I have done this and I have also worked Rnd 1, 2 & 3 of Gusset section. 52 sts (54-2) as in the pattern (as I have decreased 2 sts in Rnd 3). You are now ready to work Rnd 4 of Gusset section.
Please note that sts on needle 3 & 4 in the pattern are in fact on one needle here, which is due purely to insufficient amount of DPN's! Please remember this when continuing the work.
I have marked the beg of rnd on both stockings with a pink ribbon.
* When referring to 'pattern' I mean the pattern for Silk Hose from Stitch Style Socks, p. 74-77.
HINTS:
Several simple precautions can be taken to avoid mistakes and they are well worth following religiously.
- Work stages in one go wherever possible. When a stage is too big to be worked in one session take careful notes of where you have paused.
- Always place markers to denote decreases/increases.
- Work in well lit room.
- Be vigilant.
- Be vigilant.
- Be vigilant.
- Did I mention no wine rule?
If you are a purist you will obviously frog all the way to the mistake (provided that the mistake can be identified).
If you are not bothered by a small flaw or time is of essence, make maths work discreetly and go on!
Bon courage!
The colour combo is great, BTW :)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment