Some degree of proficiency
About two years ago, I made Kelly a caper hat. The caper hat is basically a watchcap made in worsted or chunky wool; it’s a good head warmer and it is perfect for wearing if you are planning to perpetrate a caper.
Kelly’s caper hat suffered a puppa casualty. One of the dogs, I think it was Lettie, chewed a hole in it. I took it to Marge at the Yarn Barn, and she managed to patch it, but you could tell where it had been patched. Kelly very wisely decided to try shrinking it a bit in the washing machine to see if that would erase the hole. It did - but it also did away with the brim of the hat because it shrank so much. And a caper hat with no brim is scarcely a caper hat at all.
So yesterday I bought some black Lamb’s Pride Worsted and grabbed a pair of my #8 circulars for Kelly to make herself a new caper hat with. She’s pretty handy with the needles now; I figure she can handle a 2×2 ribbed hat just fine. I started the hat for her before we went in to see Love Actually this afternoon. I showed her the knit one extra stitch/knit two together trick to get rid of the hole that appears when you knit in the round, and then as the movie started I did a few more rounds to establish the pattern for her.
As I was starting on the second round, I dropped a stitch. This is where I discovered that I really am getting good at knitting. I worked backwards a bit and found the pattern with my fingers. It’s 2×2 rib, so it wasn’t that hard. Then I worked forward until the pattern was off by one. I felt down - and found the dropped stitch. It had only dropped one row, so I was able to pick it up again and continue in the ribbed pattern just fine.
I realize that on the scale of knitting studliness, picking up a dropped stitch in the dark is not that high. But I was pretty happy with it. Afterwards, I showed Kelly the half-dozen rounds I’d knit outside the theater and told her how to do the ribbed pattern. A woman on a bench nearby started giggling loudly. What a good day - I started to bring a new hat into the world, and managed to infuse a little bit of humor as well. What more can you ask for?
December 8th, 2003 at 2:52 pm
Yay for Kelly! You’re just spreading the knitting love all over the place lately. That Lamb’s Pride makes the best hats - so soft and flexible, plus cheap and tons of colors. Many, many Christmas gifts out of that yarn this year. How about a pic of the hat when she finishes?
December 8th, 2003 at 5:06 pm
isn’t that cool? i love to freak out my students by having them hand me their work and then saying, “hey, wanna see how to pick up a dropped stitch?” they always say yes, and then i slip one off the needle and let it drop on down 3-4 rows. horrified gasps ensue. then i pick up the stitch and they are thrilled.
you should see their faces when i show them that you can correct mistakes by intentionally dropping down stitches… like knitting where you should have purled, etc. i have a fair isle hat (2 colors only, though) in which i screwed up one of the patterns over about 4 stitches for 5-6 rows before i noticed it. i managed to drop each stitch in sequence and pick it back up using the correct color for each row.
i love knitting now that i know that there are few mistakes that can’t be corrected.
by the way, i also love your site! i’m dying to see what the ssp ends up being all about.
December 8th, 2003 at 6:17 pm
Which brings me to my motto:
“A man who can pick up a dropped stitch in a dark theatre is worth two beating around the bush”…
Hiya gorgeous
December 8th, 2003 at 7:39 pm
Kaetchen, I promise I’ll get a pic of Kelly with her hat when it’s done. Whether she likes it or not. Hee hee.
Gwen, you’re absolutely right about being able to fix anything. Well, almost anything. I got great advice early on from Marge at The Yarn Barn, who admonished me to never be afraid to rip out work to fix a mistake. Lord knows that’s made my bigger projects a lot better.
And Hilary, you’re weird. Come back and visit us soon.
December 10th, 2003 at 12:52 am
Very cool! I think I’ll go drop some stitches and turn out the lights. Well, not really. Now what was that lady giggling about do you suppose?