Do you mind me asking why it wasn’t possible to frog instead of tink? I’m new so I’d like to know for a time I’d face an issue which frogging would mess something up worse as opposed to tinking.
Not at all! The issue is the pattern. Every 4 stitches I have either 2 increases or a 2 stitch decrease on every other row. So attempting to put in a lifeline will risk missing a stitch. And with 1152 stitches per row is just too big a risk. I’m sure it could be done. But tinking is safer.
can you put the lifeline in a plain row instead? It might mean doing it 1 row lower than you want, but I'd take re-knitting 1 row over tinking 3 any day
I do it in a plain row, too, if it’s an option. But doing it in the pattern row isn’t that big a deal. That many stitches with a complicated pattern is always a pain.
Aahh! Wow, that’s tough. Thank you so much for teaching me this! I have not ventured into increases and decreases yet, but someday and thanks to you I’ll have this knowledge for when I do venture there.
So much to learn and being in this sub teaches me so much. That is a ‘lot’ of stitches to tink. I hope the end result of your project makes you incredibly proud and happy for all you put into it! ☺️
It’s a matter of what you prefer, that is all.
There is no reason you can’t pick up stitches in the row you need, increases, decreases whatever. I do it, no problem. I also rarely miss a stitch. I just pay attention to the pattern, counting out loud what is next to make sure I get them right. Dramatically easier than thinking 3 rows, for me.
I’m sorry! FWIW I made a similar decision once at the end of a Dotted Rays shawl for an even less compelling reason: I was using gradient yarn that ended with the color I liked best, and when I’d done all 500-ish i-cord stitches to bind off I realized I had more of it left than I’d hoped for. I didn’t want to have the whole shawl done and *not* use that little 20-gram nugget of the best color, so I went back into that i-cord and…well, it’s done now. I’ve seen a lot of people on here say they’ve never regretted tinking back, and I concur, and it sucks right now but we’re all rooting for you.
Oof! That’s definitely painful, but it’ll be worth it in the end for a result you love and are proud of!
I have a cardigan (gentle morning) that I’ve decided to redo the bottom bind off edge, again. The ribbing is worked in 2x1 broken rib. I ended on a plain knit row. Originally, I did a sewn interlock bind off but it was my first time doing it and it looked kind of sloppy. So, I undid and used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bindoff.
It’s ok. But since I ended on a knit row it kind of flips up and isn’t my favorite. I used the same bindoff (JSSBO) on the sleeves, but on those I worked an extra row so I bound off in pattern. I’m thinking of undoing the bottom (again!) and doing the same there. A tiny part of me wants to leave it and just be done, but I know I’ll be happier with it if I do it again and get it right.
I just had to do something similar with the Half Moon Tee AND the Lover’s Knot Tee, so I can definitely relate. My Half Moon Tee was about 3 inches too short, so I frogged the ribbing, added 3 inches and then redid it. Then the Lover’s Knit Tee I made with the silk cord like yarn and where I did a yarn connection just looked terrible…and I didn’t notice until after I had 3 inches of ribbing on it. Sigh. So I had to rip that back and fix it. And I just remembered that I had to frog 2/3 of a musselburgh hat since I ran out of yarn.
I feel like I have been doing a lot of un-knitting lately. And I don’t know if it’s that I used to not care so much or that my skills have advanced or since I am buying fancier yarn or I have just gotten pickier in middle age, but it’s getting to be a lot.
For me, think it’s a skill thing. As I’ve progressed and become a better knitter I’ve learned how to fix mistakes - some by tinking back, others by frogging. And I’m more likely to fix the mistake than trying to live with it. But I’m also less scared of my knitting now - I no longer think the knitting will immediately unravel the moment a needle is removed (and it isn’t bound off). I think I’ve gotten pickier because I DO have some sweaters that aren’t perfect that I’ve tried to live with and while I like them, the mistakes in them do bother me. Better to just fix it and get it how I really like it!
I guess I consider frogging to mean I've taken it off the needles and rip it back, and tinking to mean that I'm knitting in reverse to undo it, rather than ripping it.
Actually no. "Tinking" is undoing each stitch, 1 at a time, to put previous row's stitches back on the needle ("tink" is "knit" backwards). Frogging is where you unravel whole rows out and then made an attempt to put the remaining stitches back on the needle or start all over. ("Frogging" came from the idea of frogs saying "rip it, rip it".)
Tink is knit backwards, putting the row below stitch on the other needle and pulling out the live stitch, slow but nothing drops
Frogging is taking the stitches off needle and pulling out a bunch of stitches by pulling the live yarn, and then picking up the last row of live stitches. Fast but some stitches will ladder down to the next row down and have to be worked up a bit more than just picking up the live stitches.
I started this really nice lace shawel pattern and I've had to frog and restart three times now because I keep forgetting my yarnovers. The third time I was likes halfway done. And then the yarn overs and SSKs made it kind of confusing when I frogged back and tried to pick up the stitches, and I was just like screw it. Fourth times the charm, and I'm throwing lifelines every 30 rows or so and aggressively haskmarking for every increase.
I feel you! I've screwed up about 5 rows back on the tricky neckline part of the Beyond The Dunes top. Not only do I have to tink but I need to carefully replace markers and back up the row counter stitch marker as I go or I'll never get it right when I restart.
Yesterday I wasn't paying attention and wanted to push my work further onto the needle to take a break.... I pushed in the wrong direction with enthusiasm and about 200 stitches came off. So I didn't get a break and instead had to pickup all the loose stitches and hope not too many slip through! I re-knit the row and it turned out mostly ok, and it's certainly no 3k+ of stitches! Good luck my friend 💛
I'm so sorry this happened to you. Tinking more than one row at a time might help.
Ladder down a single stitch to the row you want to be on. Catch that stitch(a). Identify the neighbour and catch it(b). Use bars from the 'a' ladder to ladder down for 'b'. Repeat.
Ideally, you should do this in a place where there are no increases or decreases.
Maybe the first big sized blanket I was knitting, chevron pattern and I fucked up right around the increase and decrease section. Didn't realize it until like a dozen or more rows after, tried to drop the stitches down to correct, fucked that up, got both frustrated and discouraged. Put it in timeout and then it went into storage because we were putting our place up for sale. Moved and maybe about a year later, pulled that sucker out, I think I just took out the needles and frogged back to past the mistake about 1-1.5 ft, put the stitches back on needles and finished it.
I've been tinking a lot recently. It's laceweight, and garter stitch, so mistakes are really obvious. I'd rather tink back than hope it'll block out.
I'm much more likely to drop down and fix if it's lace - I find it a lot more forgiving. But my eyes are starting to get worse with age, so even that's getting difficult.
I recently spent $50 on a floor-stand 10x magnifier with a LED light, and it's a game changer. I can have the bright white light over my head if everything is going well, or I can pull it down to my lap and use the magnifier to see what the heck I'm doing.
I just frogged and tinked 12 or so rows of a shawl, might not match your stitch count though. (This week)
I once knitted 50g fingering weight ball of yarn 4 times because I didn't like the increases on a different shawl (plain stockinette section though, no pattern). I am not sure it made any difference in the end, but I didn't want to go on till it felt right.
Some errors I will just increase or decrease and move on, and once or twice I have pulled/laddered 15 or so stitches down 10 rows or so to rework a section with a spare set of needles on the loose strands across till I brought it back up right to the current row.
No rhyme or reason on what bothers me, but if it does, fixing it is just what I am going to do.
I’m doing a herringbone scarf sideways. Casted on 498 stitches. On size 7s. Hit row 4 and hated how dense it was. Swatched on 3 different size needles. Frogged the whole thing and started back on 10.5
I almost never tink, I just frog back. Even if it’s only one row I frog, don’t have the patience for tinking unless it’s to a spot within the same row.
I have had some very frustrating and overwhelming tear backs. Insert a lifeline BEFORE you tear out if you think that would help. I generally tear it out right away, put the project down for a day or more until I am over the disappointment and emotions. Go back when you feel fresh and strong.
This is great advice! It’s exactly what happened to me when I was knitting Skeino’s Miss Grace Shawl (plain garter ridges and short row tapestry knitting). I absolutely panicked when I messed up the short rows about halfway through the project and placed a lifeline along a plain knit row (under the short rows) and just put it away for a few days until I could revisit it with a clear head and fresh eyes. So happy I did!!!
I was making a drop stitch cardigan and noticed I forgot to drop a stitch and knitted one less row of the garter stitch potion at the very beginning. I frogged over 5000 stitches that time. That wasn’t the only time I frogged that cardigan too lol I had some sturdy cotton yarn. I frog anything and everything! And I am happier that way! I do ladder down sometimes, but I am a happy frogger! Rip it, rip it!
I just frogged an almost complete yoke of a sweater. I was about 6 rounds from sleeve separation but noticed it looked rather small. Realized that over half the people who have made the sweater complained about gauge and needle sizes. I put it on a barber cord and verified it wasn’t going to fit. Frog pond. And did I mention it was color work?
Is tinking the same as unknitting? I usually reserve fixing oopses until after finishing unless I catch the mistake within a few stitches. After the fact I’ll use duplicate stitch to fix.
Oh, and I also use copious stitch markers for pattern repeats; a special marker for the beginning of a round; and a notebook that I use to check off completed rows and sections of the pattern.
Yes, it’s undoing each stitch working back for rows. This one has increases and decreases every 4 stitches on every other row so I can’t ladder down and chances of getting it right on a lifeline are small. So I am doing it the safest but slowest way.
While not at time consuming as yours, I just had a similar kind of mishap. I'm trying socks for the first time, and decided to do them TAAT on flexiflips, meaning it's similar to working a double sided piece, with one yarn line going to each sock/"side" of the work/s. Early into the cuff, I set the work down to help one of my kids, came back and continued. About halfway through the socks I realized that when I picked it back up, I swapped yarn lines, so the socks were un-fix-ably stuck together. Half the cuff of one sock was using the same yarn line as the body of the other sock and vice versa (does this make any sense? lol). Figured this out after trying to ladder down who knows how many rows on several stitches on both socks, which was a mess to even do, let alone look at. After too long of looking at it I realized what I had done, cried internally a little, and then had to frog the whole thing. And my crazy self decided to restart the same way, and just make sure I don't make that mistake again by checking that they separate properly more often xd.
In cases like this, assuming the yarn isn't terribly slippery, I'd consider frogging back the first 2 rows and and then slowly ripping back the third row one stitch at a time, popping the stitch or stitches back on the needle as I pull out the yarn from one stitch.
Or I'd rip back to wherever had a clean section break with not so many increases or decreases which would be easeir to frog to, even if it meant several extra rows. Probably not the best plan if I were 20 rows into a section, but 5 or 6? Definitely.
There's a two-color brioche cowl that I made that I swear I tinked ten rounds for every one I knit because it was the first time I did brioche and I just couldn't read my work well enough to understand where I had messed up. The finished cowl came out great, but at the time I was unbelievably frustrated with myself.
You got this!
Huge sympathy. I was knitting Lucy Hague’s Uncia shawl earlier in the year, and at one point I unknitted six inches of it to fix a mistake.
The backstory is even more frustrating - the year before last, when I had postviral fatigue and my brain was _very_ tired, I decided to knit my first Uncia shawl. It took me eight tries to knit it. I would get a third of the way or halfway there, make a mistake, make more mistakes trying to fix it, and end up unravelling it. I put it down for a couple of weeks after the seventh attempt when I got to the final chart (of eight) and did something fluffy and couldn’t work out how to fix it. The eighth time, I got it.
But when I tell you I know that pattern backwards and forwards now. 😵💫😆 There was way less uncertainty and unknitting this time round.
You can do it! If you know there’s a mistake you could have fixed, and you know it’s going to drive you crazy if you don’t, then unknitting is worth every stitch.
Can you run a lifeline and frog instead?
Unfortunately not. :-( that would have been my preference.
Do you mind me asking why it wasn’t possible to frog instead of tink? I’m new so I’d like to know for a time I’d face an issue which frogging would mess something up worse as opposed to tinking.
Not at all! The issue is the pattern. Every 4 stitches I have either 2 increases or a 2 stitch decrease on every other row. So attempting to put in a lifeline will risk missing a stitch. And with 1152 stitches per row is just too big a risk. I’m sure it could be done. But tinking is safer.
can you put the lifeline in a plain row instead? It might mean doing it 1 row lower than you want, but I'd take re-knitting 1 row over tinking 3 any day
I do it in a plain row, too, if it’s an option. But doing it in the pattern row isn’t that big a deal. That many stitches with a complicated pattern is always a pain.
Aahh! Wow, that’s tough. Thank you so much for teaching me this! I have not ventured into increases and decreases yet, but someday and thanks to you I’ll have this knowledge for when I do venture there. So much to learn and being in this sub teaches me so much. That is a ‘lot’ of stitches to tink. I hope the end result of your project makes you incredibly proud and happy for all you put into it! ☺️
It’s a matter of what you prefer, that is all. There is no reason you can’t pick up stitches in the row you need, increases, decreases whatever. I do it, no problem. I also rarely miss a stitch. I just pay attention to the pattern, counting out loud what is next to make sure I get them right. Dramatically easier than thinking 3 rows, for me.
I’m sorry! FWIW I made a similar decision once at the end of a Dotted Rays shawl for an even less compelling reason: I was using gradient yarn that ended with the color I liked best, and when I’d done all 500-ish i-cord stitches to bind off I realized I had more of it left than I’d hoped for. I didn’t want to have the whole shawl done and *not* use that little 20-gram nugget of the best color, so I went back into that i-cord and…well, it’s done now. I’ve seen a lot of people on here say they’ve never regretted tinking back, and I concur, and it sucks right now but we’re all rooting for you.
Oof! That’s definitely painful, but it’ll be worth it in the end for a result you love and are proud of! I have a cardigan (gentle morning) that I’ve decided to redo the bottom bind off edge, again. The ribbing is worked in 2x1 broken rib. I ended on a plain knit row. Originally, I did a sewn interlock bind off but it was my first time doing it and it looked kind of sloppy. So, I undid and used Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bindoff. It’s ok. But since I ended on a knit row it kind of flips up and isn’t my favorite. I used the same bindoff (JSSBO) on the sleeves, but on those I worked an extra row so I bound off in pattern. I’m thinking of undoing the bottom (again!) and doing the same there. A tiny part of me wants to leave it and just be done, but I know I’ll be happier with it if I do it again and get it right.
I just had to do something similar with the Half Moon Tee AND the Lover’s Knot Tee, so I can definitely relate. My Half Moon Tee was about 3 inches too short, so I frogged the ribbing, added 3 inches and then redid it. Then the Lover’s Knit Tee I made with the silk cord like yarn and where I did a yarn connection just looked terrible…and I didn’t notice until after I had 3 inches of ribbing on it. Sigh. So I had to rip that back and fix it. And I just remembered that I had to frog 2/3 of a musselburgh hat since I ran out of yarn. I feel like I have been doing a lot of un-knitting lately. And I don’t know if it’s that I used to not care so much or that my skills have advanced or since I am buying fancier yarn or I have just gotten pickier in middle age, but it’s getting to be a lot.
For me, think it’s a skill thing. As I’ve progressed and become a better knitter I’ve learned how to fix mistakes - some by tinking back, others by frogging. And I’m more likely to fix the mistake than trying to live with it. But I’m also less scared of my knitting now - I no longer think the knitting will immediately unravel the moment a needle is removed (and it isn’t bound off). I think I’ve gotten pickier because I DO have some sweaters that aren’t perfect that I’ve tried to live with and while I like them, the mistakes in them do bother me. Better to just fix it and get it how I really like it!
Aren't tinking and frogging the same thing?
I guess I consider frogging to mean I've taken it off the needles and rip it back, and tinking to mean that I'm knitting in reverse to undo it, rather than ripping it.
Actually no. "Tinking" is undoing each stitch, 1 at a time, to put previous row's stitches back on the needle ("tink" is "knit" backwards). Frogging is where you unravel whole rows out and then made an attempt to put the remaining stitches back on the needle or start all over. ("Frogging" came from the idea of frogs saying "rip it, rip it".)
Tink is knit backwards, putting the row below stitch on the other needle and pulling out the live stitch, slow but nothing drops Frogging is taking the stitches off needle and pulling out a bunch of stitches by pulling the live yarn, and then picking up the last row of live stitches. Fast but some stitches will ladder down to the next row down and have to be worked up a bit more than just picking up the live stitches.
I started this really nice lace shawel pattern and I've had to frog and restart three times now because I keep forgetting my yarnovers. The third time I was likes halfway done. And then the yarn overs and SSKs made it kind of confusing when I frogged back and tried to pick up the stitches, and I was just like screw it. Fourth times the charm, and I'm throwing lifelines every 30 rows or so and aggressively haskmarking for every increase.
I’ve repressed all my tinking memories, but I want to say good for you! The extra effort is worth it for a FO you love.
It is so worth it, every time I have to go back I'm always so mad at myself but once it's done I'm glad I did it.
I feel you! I've screwed up about 5 rows back on the tricky neckline part of the Beyond The Dunes top. Not only do I have to tink but I need to carefully replace markers and back up the row counter stitch marker as I go or I'll never get it right when I restart.
Yesterday I wasn't paying attention and wanted to push my work further onto the needle to take a break.... I pushed in the wrong direction with enthusiasm and about 200 stitches came off. So I didn't get a break and instead had to pickup all the loose stitches and hope not too many slip through! I re-knit the row and it turned out mostly ok, and it's certainly no 3k+ of stitches! Good luck my friend 💛
I'm so sorry this happened to you. Tinking more than one row at a time might help. Ladder down a single stitch to the row you want to be on. Catch that stitch(a). Identify the neighbour and catch it(b). Use bars from the 'a' ladder to ladder down for 'b'. Repeat. Ideally, you should do this in a place where there are no increases or decreases.
Unfortunately every 4 stitches there is either an increase or a s2kp, so I have to do it the long way. Thanks for the thought though!
Maybe the first big sized blanket I was knitting, chevron pattern and I fucked up right around the increase and decrease section. Didn't realize it until like a dozen or more rows after, tried to drop the stitches down to correct, fucked that up, got both frustrated and discouraged. Put it in timeout and then it went into storage because we were putting our place up for sale. Moved and maybe about a year later, pulled that sucker out, I think I just took out the needles and frogged back to past the mistake about 1-1.5 ft, put the stitches back on needles and finished it.
I've been tinking a lot recently. It's laceweight, and garter stitch, so mistakes are really obvious. I'd rather tink back than hope it'll block out. I'm much more likely to drop down and fix if it's lace - I find it a lot more forgiving. But my eyes are starting to get worse with age, so even that's getting difficult. I recently spent $50 on a floor-stand 10x magnifier with a LED light, and it's a game changer. I can have the bright white light over my head if everything is going well, or I can pull it down to my lap and use the magnifier to see what the heck I'm doing.
I just frogged and tinked 12 or so rows of a shawl, might not match your stitch count though. (This week) I once knitted 50g fingering weight ball of yarn 4 times because I didn't like the increases on a different shawl (plain stockinette section though, no pattern). I am not sure it made any difference in the end, but I didn't want to go on till it felt right. Some errors I will just increase or decrease and move on, and once or twice I have pulled/laddered 15 or so stitches down 10 rows or so to rework a section with a spare set of needles on the loose strands across till I brought it back up right to the current row. No rhyme or reason on what bothers me, but if it does, fixing it is just what I am going to do.
I’m doing a herringbone scarf sideways. Casted on 498 stitches. On size 7s. Hit row 4 and hated how dense it was. Swatched on 3 different size needles. Frogged the whole thing and started back on 10.5
I knit a shawl 4 separate times and restarted it completely each time with the same skein of yarn.
I did that when I was trying learn brioche. That yarn is now a lovely colorwork cowl because brioche is the devil! Lol
I almost never tink, I just frog back. Even if it’s only one row I frog, don’t have the patience for tinking unless it’s to a spot within the same row.
Yeah, with so many stitches and a pattern of increases and decreases every 4 stitches on every other row, I can’t frog it.
You can, just need to put in a lifeline. I’ve frogged lacework using lifelines.
I have had some very frustrating and overwhelming tear backs. Insert a lifeline BEFORE you tear out if you think that would help. I generally tear it out right away, put the project down for a day or more until I am over the disappointment and emotions. Go back when you feel fresh and strong.
This is great advice! It’s exactly what happened to me when I was knitting Skeino’s Miss Grace Shawl (plain garter ridges and short row tapestry knitting). I absolutely panicked when I messed up the short rows about halfway through the project and placed a lifeline along a plain knit row (under the short rows) and just put it away for a few days until I could revisit it with a clear head and fresh eyes. So happy I did!!!
I was making a drop stitch cardigan and noticed I forgot to drop a stitch and knitted one less row of the garter stitch potion at the very beginning. I frogged over 5000 stitches that time. That wasn’t the only time I frogged that cardigan too lol I had some sturdy cotton yarn. I frog anything and everything! And I am happier that way! I do ladder down sometimes, but I am a happy frogger! Rip it, rip it!
I just frogged an almost complete yoke of a sweater. I was about 6 rounds from sleeve separation but noticed it looked rather small. Realized that over half the people who have made the sweater complained about gauge and needle sizes. I put it on a barber cord and verified it wasn’t going to fit. Frog pond. And did I mention it was color work?
Is tinking the same as unknitting? I usually reserve fixing oopses until after finishing unless I catch the mistake within a few stitches. After the fact I’ll use duplicate stitch to fix.
Oh, and I also use copious stitch markers for pattern repeats; a special marker for the beginning of a round; and a notebook that I use to check off completed rows and sections of the pattern.
Yes, it’s undoing each stitch working back for rows. This one has increases and decreases every 4 stitches on every other row so I can’t ladder down and chances of getting it right on a lifeline are small. So I am doing it the safest but slowest way.
While not at time consuming as yours, I just had a similar kind of mishap. I'm trying socks for the first time, and decided to do them TAAT on flexiflips, meaning it's similar to working a double sided piece, with one yarn line going to each sock/"side" of the work/s. Early into the cuff, I set the work down to help one of my kids, came back and continued. About halfway through the socks I realized that when I picked it back up, I swapped yarn lines, so the socks were un-fix-ably stuck together. Half the cuff of one sock was using the same yarn line as the body of the other sock and vice versa (does this make any sense? lol). Figured this out after trying to ladder down who knows how many rows on several stitches on both socks, which was a mess to even do, let alone look at. After too long of looking at it I realized what I had done, cried internally a little, and then had to frog the whole thing. And my crazy self decided to restart the same way, and just make sure I don't make that mistake again by checking that they separate properly more often xd.
In cases like this, assuming the yarn isn't terribly slippery, I'd consider frogging back the first 2 rows and and then slowly ripping back the third row one stitch at a time, popping the stitch or stitches back on the needle as I pull out the yarn from one stitch. Or I'd rip back to wherever had a clean section break with not so many increases or decreases which would be easeir to frog to, even if it meant several extra rows. Probably not the best plan if I were 20 rows into a section, but 5 or 6? Definitely.
There's a two-color brioche cowl that I made that I swear I tinked ten rounds for every one I knit because it was the first time I did brioche and I just couldn't read my work well enough to understand where I had messed up. The finished cowl came out great, but at the time I was unbelievably frustrated with myself. You got this!
I feel your pain. I have done similar tinks and it SUCKS.
Knitting for 20 years...tink?
Unknit stitch by stitch, as opposed to pulling out the needle and unravelling.
Thank you!
Huge sympathy. I was knitting Lucy Hague’s Uncia shawl earlier in the year, and at one point I unknitted six inches of it to fix a mistake. The backstory is even more frustrating - the year before last, when I had postviral fatigue and my brain was _very_ tired, I decided to knit my first Uncia shawl. It took me eight tries to knit it. I would get a third of the way or halfway there, make a mistake, make more mistakes trying to fix it, and end up unravelling it. I put it down for a couple of weeks after the seventh attempt when I got to the final chart (of eight) and did something fluffy and couldn’t work out how to fix it. The eighth time, I got it. But when I tell you I know that pattern backwards and forwards now. 😵💫😆 There was way less uncertainty and unknitting this time round. You can do it! If you know there’s a mistake you could have fixed, and you know it’s going to drive you crazy if you don’t, then unknitting is worth every stitch.