To frog or not to frog: that is the question
If you are just learning to knit, I would advise you not to be too perfectionist. In the very beginning, it’s more important to find the right rhythm and tension. Be proud of your first project even if it contains mistakes!
Remember that flawless handicraft is considered hubris or believed to trap your soul in certain cultures. Deliberate mistakes are made to avoid such a great sin or calamity! 😎
On the other hand, you might as well get used to the idea that discarding and undoing are an essential part of the creative process. Believe me, I hate having to undo several hours’ or days’ work, but these seemingly wasted hours are not really wasted: they are part of the process, and they will soon be forgotten, while you will hopefully cherish and enjoy your finished projects for many years to come.
Deciding if and when to correct mistakes can be a difficult dilemma.
How to correct mistakes
If you have made a mistake in the row you are in, you can unpick the stitches one by one, till you get to the mistake and correct it. This is called tinking (K-N-I-T, T-I-N-K, get it? 😉)
Tinking is done the same way, no matter whether you are unpicking knit or purl stitches: Insert the left hand needle into the stitch below the stitch on the right hand needle and drop the stitch off the right hand needle. The following video shows how to knit and un-knit purl stitches.
If you have dropped a stitch, you can pick it up again with a crochet hook, preferably one that is a bit thinner than what you would normally use for your yarn. In stocking stitch, this is quite easy:
It can even be done without a crochet hook:
In garter stitch, things are slightly more complicated:
If you have made a mistake several rows further down, you can knit or un-knit, till you get to the corresponding stitch in your row, and then undo the stitch, correct the mistake, and pick up the stitch again as shown in the videos above.
Lifelines
If it is not possible to correct your mistake this way, you might need to unravel part of your knitting. To do this, you can make a lifeline: Pass a circular or double-pointed needle through each stitch in a row below the point where the problem lies, and unravel down to this line.
Use a thinner needle than the one you have knitted with. Pick up the right leg of every stitch (no matter which side you are on).
In plain stocking stitch, there is the risk of inadvertently jumping to a row above or below. It is therefore better to pick up the stitches from the wrong side, where you can use the ridges as a guide.
When knitting especially intricate patterns, you can make a lifeline in advance at certain points. Use a darning needle to pass a piece of yarn, preferably in a contrasting colour, through each stitch on the needle.
Use unwaxed dental floss or some other kind of strong, thin and slippery yarn. Make sure it lies at the base of the stitches and that you do not split the knitting yarn.
Knit on, as you would normally. If the need arises you can frog up to that point, put the stitches back on a needle, and continue knitting.
Advanced surgery
It is also possible to only frog a group of stitches and reknit them. This is useful if you have crossed a cable the wrong way or if you have knitted a section of an intricate pattern wrong.
In this case, I crossed the wrong cable in brioche 4 double rows down 😱 My latest lifeline was much further down and I definitely did not want to frog that far. Also, the pattern was far too complicated for an ex post lifeline, but I could save the situation with local surgery 👩🏻⚕️ i.e. only unravel as much as absolutely necessary.
So, I dropped all the stitches that were or should have been involved in the crossed cables, down to a point below where the mistake happened. I picked up the stitches with a thin knitting needle (it’s harder to do if the needle is too thick) and I reknitted the section row by row.
The challenge here is to pick up the right strand to knit each row. Especially in brioche (but not only) it’s easy to pick up the yarn from another row by mistake.
Also you need to get the tension right, otherwise you will either have long loops hanging or you’ll run out of yarn before you finish reknitting the row.
This kind of intervention does require quite some experience, but if you have a lifeline further down, you have nothing to lose. (You did make a lifeline, right?? 😳) Give it a try and if, for whatever reason things go wrong, you can frog down to your lifeline.
Is there no hope?
If the situation is hopeless, or if you are still at the beginning, it will probably be easier to start anew.
Ripping out your work is tedious, so rather than frog, I start anew with the other end of the skein. The knitting will unravel itself when I have used up the rest of the yarn.
If you do choose to unravel the whole piece and make a ball of the yarn, make sure not to wind it too tightly: the yarn will lose its elasticity and sheen. I often wind the yarn around the ball and my thumb. When I pull out my thumb, the yarn is loose enough.
Thought of the day: Love your knits (and yourself) with all their flaws 😎
… or at least the ones that cannot be corrected 🤓
Annaplexis 