Be the boss of your knitting: fixing mistakes in lace

Every knitter has been there … you’re happily working away, watching your beautiful knitting grow when you spot it: a mistake. Maybe it’s two rows back. Maybe it’s twenty. Maybe you can live with it, but maybe it’s noticeable enough that it’s going to bug you.

Photo © Jesse Wild

Photo © Jesse Wild

Many knitters are comfortable with the idea of dropping stitches down to fix a small mistake rather than heading straight to the frog pond, but when the mistake is in lace, it might seem like ripping back is your only option. The idea of dropping stitches down – contending with decreases and yarn overs – can seem so daunting. In today’s video, I urge you to take a deep breath, remain calm, and give dropping a lace repeat down to fix it a try. If the fix doesn’t work , you can still rip back to your lifeline (and this is why lifelines are so great for lace knitting) and there’s very little lost – in fact, you’ve taken an important step in building confidence with this technique. But if you do successfully fix the mistake, not only have you saved yourself the time it would have taken to frog and reknit – yay! – but you’ll get an amazing sense of accomplishment. I think there are few things in knitting as satisfying as feeling you’re the boss of your own project, rather than the other way around!

With a little time, a space to work, and some blocking pins to help keep things tidy, you’ll be on your way to fixing that mistake in no time … watch on to see how:

While the April Boost Your Knitting KAL, focussed on fixing mistakes in lace, is winding down, plenty of us will still be knitting along on our lace … and tomorrow will bring a brand new technique, pattern, and tutorials! If you’d like to join in the Boost Your Knitting fun, you still can for £30 (inc worldwide shipping). You’ll receive March and April’s patterns and tutorials immediately, and get a new pattern and tutorial in your Ravelry inbox each month. You’ll also receive the print book, shipped free worldwide, in September 2019!