What a gorgeous colour.
But sorry, no tricks in my brain right now to help you with those cable-thingy.

Nice design work. That Misti Alpaca is delicious! I'm working on a Christmas gift. I won't say who for, she might be reading this.

If you want (dare) to, just gently rip to the row you want and pick up stitches. Or if you are really patient, you can unknit. Unravel one stitch at a time placing it on the next needle. Kinda like knitting backwards. I've become quite adept at it. My experience with unraveling and just picking up stitches usually requires more wine than is conducive with knitting.

I have a pair of the Harmony sock needles and I love them. Can't wait to have a chance to get some FREE!!!!

When I blow out a cable (and notice) I just drop all the stitchs on that cable down to the stitch before the mistake (or failed artist effort) pick up the stitches on a similar sized, one smaller is my preference, dpn and knit them all up again, cabling correctly as I go. It works fine. It is a little wonky looking sometimes, depending on the fiber, but it blocks out for me.

Hope this helps,
Deb in PA

If you and Bob haven't made lunch of the alpaca yet...check out Debbie Stoller's Stitch and Bitch, p 108. (I am teaching myself to knit from this book, and so I have to carry it with me wherever my knitting goes.) I've never tried this technique, but I figure it might come in handy some day when I get tired of just sewing up all my dropped stitches with thread and don't want to rip THE WHOLE DAMN PIECE and start over. And yes, it does look mighty fancypants, so I'd recommend you pour a glass of your favorite stitch lube first--or, what the heck, swill it right from the bottle!

Et le chat Bob est magnifique! Learn to say "Where's the bathroom?" and you're all set to book your trip...

Mon amie. J'aime appelle Marie. Ripping out is never fun but you might want to start putting in a "life line" which is what my lace teacher called a piece of yarn slipped through stitches about every 10 rows. That way you just rip back to the life line and start again. Easy, peasy. BTW--The Misti Alpaca chunky is wonderful to knit with but it weighs a ton. I made my daughter a sweater for Xmas a few years back and I swear it weighed 20 lbs by the time I finished it. Whew--talk about a labor of love.

Too much for MOI! But it all looks wonderful. But the tea looks wonderful (I'm not much on yoghurt, truth to tell). Also! Your phone is exactly like MY phone, only mine is silver. And does that bottle say SMART WATER???? Boy, you can get anything in California, huh? I've sworn to not knit One. More. THING. until I've finished the Dr Who scarf I'm working on. 8.5 feet down, 3.5 feet to go. (That keening sound you hear is me, rereading that last bit.) I think I am going to take a nap now.

I know it's frustrating to some to rip out, but I love it! Makes me feel 'in charge' of my knitting! This ol' scarf won't get the best of me! ha ha! BUt then again, a good glass of wine wouldn't hurt!

Yes, I've done it before. I suggest you use a needle several sizes smaller than what you are working on. Say you're using a 6mm needle (sorry, I'm Canadian) then go down to a 4mm or smaller. This will make it easier for you to get the stitches onto the needle. And you can just start knitting off the needle when you start back up again using your regular needle size.

There are two ways I'd handle that. First, I'd probably just frog it back to a row or 2 less than what I needed to pull out...then I would stitch by stitch as I pulled the yarn put it back on the needles. If I'm not sure I got it right, I will tink back one more row with it on the needles. The 2nd way, I would just stick that needle through as best I can picking up stitches on the row I am tearing back to and then frog back to that point and then tink back a row or two just to make sure I got it all on. I don't worry about getting the needle through perfectly as long as I caught most of the stitches.
Hope that helps.

Ohhh, yes, that's beautiful yarn. Did it taste good? Re: the multitasking, I had to laugh this morning when I realized I had walked into the LIVING ROOM while putting on deodorant without even realizing it!! I told my husband I've crossed some line now where my brain just does what it wants to while my person is doing something else, and to please let me know if I'm scratching my hindquarters in public or something, since apparently I would not be aware of it!

The great thing about coming up with your own pattern is just that. Its yours. You own it. There are no flaws, only "asthetic design elements." Once I decided it was perfectly ok to rip something out if I choose to and start over, it was rather empowering. I think your yummy Misti Alpaca looks fantastic! LOVE that seed stitch & sexy cables, girl. I started knitting 2 1/2 months ago (shortly after that, I 'met' you and have spent hours catching up on your site and bought your book!). My mom set me up with some sticks and yarn and showed me the garter stitch. After about 2 inches of that it I was bored so I taught myself the purl and created my own basketweave scarf. My 2nd project was a lace scarf and & the 3rd is a lace shawl in the "Diamond Fantasy" pattern for my Mother in Law in England. I havent done seed stitch or cables yet and cant wait to try it out but I'm kinda hooked on the lace. We recently received a box of Cadbury Crunchie Bars from my hubby's Mom in England and I'm here to tell you, they go with anything and at anytime. I think they improve my focus while knitting. If you have the chance, order some. They are absolutely righteous.

Happy Thursday Laurie!

i, too, love that yarn. heavenly!! it would be faster and less fiddle-y to just rip back. trying to feed the big needle is frustrating for me. good luck! i look forward to seeing your finished original design. :)

Oh, my, yes, been there, done that. And you know what? I have come to realize that for me, myself, personally, it is easier and much speedier to just rip the whole thing back to where I'm happy with it, make my corrections and be on my way. If I try to isolate the offending columns of stitches and reknit them, (and it can be done,) but then I'm unhappy with the way the stitches look all wonky and I'm so afraid they won't block out. My advice: a lovely glass of wine, a deep breath or four and have at it! Good luck.

I know absolutely nothing about knitting or French. But I know a picture of a good looking young man when I see one. It's a Bob day!!!
It always just cheers me up to see one or all or lots of your kitties!

I have had good results (i.e. a less stressful experience that ends up working!) with unraveling by doing the following:

Use a circular needle that is substantially smaller than the straights you're using. That makes it easier to wind the needle into the stitches you want to save, and the cable is even smaller than the needle so it makes it easy to pick the stitches back up again after you've unraveled.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Memphis Mary -- the "life line" idea is BRILLIANT!! I will remember that for my next project!! Thank you!
--laurie

I don't even speak French and I understood your French perfectly. You must be getting good - osmosis-wise. I don't speak knitting either so I'm really no help there either. I do speak 'Cat' - tell Bob I said 'Hi'. Meow

Here's the website I used that gives PICTURES (thank heavens!) so you can feel confident about the processing of unvraveling:))...http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/FEATwin03TT.html
good luck..I'm a very beginner beginner knitter and it worked for me! Guess I better get back to work..bummer.
Love the yarn..love the pattern..good luck:))))

C'est manifique! I actually likeit the way it is. I'd keep knitting... but the scarf is for you, not me. you know... It would get more use here in chilly CT than in sunny LA... just sayin'...

actually, my son is learning French in 1st grade. He now knows more than I actually remember....

I wouldn't want to re-knit anything involving seed stitch, either! I think we can all agree....its a pain.

I wonder if it wouldne't be quicker to just bite the bullet and tink and knit again.
Unpicking *only* the sequence of cable stitches seems very fiddly...
Happy knitting!

Those KnitPicks Harmony needles are gorgeous, aren't they?! I adore them. Bob avec le Tour Eiffel is also gorgeous!

Sherri had a good idea about a life line. Too late for that now, but here's a suggestion on how to do that easily (for the future).

If you use the Knit Picks Options (interchangeable) Harmony (or nickel plated) needles, there's a small hole at the end of the cable part (used to tighten the cable/needle tip combination). Thread a piece of dental floss through it and tie it on. Use a bow or half bow, so you can untie it easily. Then knit your row, and you have a perfectly placed life line to rip back to if you need to do it in the future. At the end of the row, untie the floss from the needle, and cut the other end leaving a bit extra on each side so it doesn't slide out of the end stitches.

I suggested dental floss because it's sturdy, slides easily, comes in an easy dispenser with a cutter (for once the floss is through) and the dispenser closes up so it doesn't interfere with anything else in your knitting bag. AND, if you fly, they probably won't be upset about you carrying the cutter in the floss case, but you'll have something that will cut yarn.

Then again, there's always the solution of calling it a "design feature."

If I can give you several nifty ideas for ways to use Options needles that you can't use other needles, do you think you could get me a set of the nickel (or Harmony) needles?

Actually, that's a good idea!

I'll post them on my blog.

Seriously, it looks just fine. Don't rip or anything, just keep knitting and after you'Re done, block the thing! It'll lay perfectly fine without puckering I'm absolutely willing to bet on this :-)

Philhelline, I have a very wide (four or five-inch border) od seed stitch at the bottom of the scarf. I just want to unravel down to the place where I stopped doing the border (bottom) and started doing the body (cables). So I'm only ripping out half the length, not down to the cast-on stitch. Make sense?

If it doesn't work, obviously yes I'll re knit the whole thing but as Shelly said, le seed stitch is le pain in the butt.

Nicole-- I thank you for the nice words. I guess I just don't like it enough to keep on with it, the seed stitch in the middle of the cables is icky looking (to me).

Johann-- I love the needles, this is the first time I've ever used them and I am hooked!! I think when my no-spend is all over, I'm going to buy the set of circular interchangeable knitting needles for myself as a gift to moi.

By the way, my co-workers just love me working in random French words here and there. I think I have reached a whole new level of tres dorky.

These are all such good ideas!! Thank you!!

You all have me thinking now... I bet I could use a yarn needle and weave a piece of thread into a row of stitches as a backup even now. Might be easier than doing it with a knitting needle. I am much handier with a sewing needle than I am with a knitting needle.

All you need to visit France is restaurant-French, because everything is secondary to eating.

I have no knitting help for you... only sympathy. I'm in pig ear hell right now. I'm trying to turn your pumpkin hat into a pig hat. I got the snout the first try, but the ear is defeating me. I'll share on my blog (and give you full credit, of course) when I get it done.

Ok, if you don't like it right now put it on some waste yarn (grab a blunt needle thread it with some smooth yarn, cotton is good and put the needle through all the stitches replacing the knitting needle with yarn. Then dunk the scarf into some water, let it soak for a bit, put it on a towel and roll it up like a sausage, hop on it to get as much water out as you can, unroll, and either just stretch it out on a flat surface or stretch it out and pin it in place (old cushion, sofa covered with a clean towel, whatever, as long as it can get damp and you can stick pins into it it#s fine) let it dry like that and see if you like it any better. If not you can still rip it all out.

You could try putting in an after-the-fact lifeline. Take a big yarn needle, thread it with waste yarn in another color, and run it through the row you want to rip back to. Try to catch every stitch in the row. Then pull out your knitting needles and let 'er rip! Carefully pick up the stitches on the waste yarn. If you've missed a couple it will be obvious when you start picking them up.

And just so you know, I am personally in Paris right this very minute and plan to go out to dinner and drink a whole lot of wine very soon now... Everyone here says "Hurry up and c'mon over!"

Recently I used 2 enormous stitch holders (those diaper-pin things remind me of kilt pins) about 5 inches down on a Patons UpCountry blanket to rip out a color change gone horribly wrong. Once the blanket was secured onto the stitch holders, i took the blanket off my circs and ripped it down to the holders, slid it back onto the needles and went right back to knitting.
If you do rip it back to the part you like, insert a lifeline so if you change your mind again, you can rip it back again.

I don't know how to neatly pick up dropped sticthes yet, so I'd be afraid of frogging without it secured onto something.

LYNN-- wish I were there!!

Trisha -- my friend Corey is trying to talk me into ripping without a lifeline or knitting needle but I'm with you, I feel like I need the security of thread or needle in there. I've ripped before and it has not been pretty.

Oh well, we shall see. I'm working on another work-in-progress in the meantime which has alpaca in it too and is also just as sheddy. I looked like I had tussled with a Persian cat on the bus!

Try this site:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knitting-tips

Check out the last 2 videos under "Fixing Mistakes." The the first vid will show you how to insert your needle in the row you want to unravel to, then the 2nd one will show how to insert a lifeline so you can practice the cabling again without fear of having to mess with your seed stich!

I'm happy to have found your blog and links. I was just looking for something to knit. Drew has a scarf for Special Olympics..so that was it..only in blocks of garter stitch and magic scarf pattern. I'll try his crochet pattern again after this one is finished. You are very talented..thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Jean P., for that link to the method for frogging on Knitty. I am not a very accomplished knitter and I was terrified of the very idea of frogging, but those pictures are great! And Laurie: I have a set of the KnitPicks Harmony Wood sock needles and I just love them; they are so smooth and pretty. I got the set of six sets of DPNs, which turned out to be a good thing since I had to go down a needle size on my (first) sock. I may turn into a knitter after all. Marie

I didn't read all of the comments above, so this may have already been suggested. Instead of using a knitting needle to hold the stitches where you want the frogging to stop, you could take a tapestry needle and a piece of waste yarn (dishcloth or crochet cotton works well for me, as it is not sticky like animal fibers) and thread that through your stitches at the row where you want your unraveling to stop!

Then, after frogging, pick up those stitches on your knitting needle. This lets you turn the stitches if you somehow twisted some of them like I always manage to do.

OMG....I love smart water, stonyfield yogurt with granola and tea...have it every day at work...and I read your blog every freakin day...so weird. YES I can totally tell when people check out of the phone conversation and into the email there's a long pause before they give a generic response...and yes, i've done it too. Great scarf!

I do what knitmomma said with the tapestry needle and the waste yarn. and also pick them up off the yarn again on a way skinnier needle because I can never get them onto the size needle they should be on. And they're already knit so I just don't worry about that fiddly little bit.

I was reading the blog of a woman who is asking for something every day (which sounds kind of cool), and saw that she's using your picture:

http://thedailyasker.blogspot.com/2008/10/click-and-clack-heal-my-car.html

Unless you're working with slippery yarn or in a complicated lace pattern, the life-line isn't really necessary.

I take a deep breath, pull out the needles, and start unravelling. Sometimes there is a waiting period between when I have realized my screw-up and the unravelling, but nevertheless...

I unravel until one or two rows above where I want to re-start. I then place the stitches back on the needles and un-knit or tink back the one or two rows. That way, I take care of any semi-dropped or twisted stitches at the same time.

Another (slower possibility) is to arm yourself with a crochet hook and replace the seed stitch in the middle with stockinette/reverse stockinette one vertical row at a time. That is, let one stitch drop down to where you want your change, then ladder them all up again with the crochet hook in so that the loops are now in stockinette. This is pretty slow, though, so if there are more than a few stitches I'd just rip back.

Beautiful yarn! I'm not a good knitter - scarves and dish rags are the sum total of my experience - but I do know good yarn and that's yummy! blessings, marlene

There are no mistakes, just design features. Thus says the Frog Princess. Remember that the hardest part of the lifeline is keeping it straight. I always endup speering the row before and after the one I'm trying to go down.

You could probably use stitch holders, like those ones that look like giant safety pins, at your "stop frogging here" point. Those are easy to slip stitches onto and off of because they're thinner than the knitting needles and secure because you use them like safety pins.

Try to look at frogging in a positive light - you're re-working to make it better. I'd rather frog and start over to get it right so it looks better than to keep going with something that looks wonky and that I'm not fond of. You don't want to end up in a situation where every time you look at the scarf, you think, "if only I had done..." You want to be proud of the finished product. You want people to walk up to you in the grocery store and at work and on the bus and ooh and ahh over it. And hey, even the professionals frog their work. Ask Drew - he's mentioned frogging work in his blog.

Knitting is like men. Never settle until you get what will really make you happy. The extra effort is worth it in the end.

@dale-harriet: are you using one of the patterns on the Web? I've made one with that - lots of work, but a novel project in the end. I get lots of comments on it when I wear it. I'm thinking of doing a crochet version with lighter yarn (the one I knitted is so heavy!) I also changed the colors - I wanted something brighter - and I did a knit 3, purl 3 pattern to add a little more interest.

Beautiful yarn and such a yummy color!

Multi-tasking - computers don't do it either - they're just very fast have have different little brain components - but they're always just doing ons and off's....

If you have trouble inserting a knitting needle in the stitches below, try putting in a lifeline. Get some smooth bright colored thin yarn and thread a tapestry needle. Use the tapestry needle to go through each stitch in a row that you want to rip back to. Once you've ripped back to the lifelife, just reload the stitches back on the knitting needle, et voila!

Laurie, it looks like you've gotten a lot of good ripping-out advice in the comments. My advice is make sure you have plenty of chocolate just in case things go horribly wrong with the ripping!

Give loose end to dog, encourage tug of war. I have totally never done this with crochet that I was fed up with, honest. Well, ok, once. Or twice.

I didn't read through all the comments to see if you've gotten a response about your dilemma. In my experience, it would take a lot more than chocolate to fix that much w/o undoing the seed stitch on the edges. A lot of wine along with a lot of chocolate might help. I "undid" some parts of a sock once when I discovered an error - and it was only 5 rows back. My fixing made me cry. Sorry to be a pessimist and not give you any good, valuable advice...

(I'll admit to not having the time to read all of the comments first, but I'm at work, and need to post and run at the moment, to not get caught).

I think your scarft looks fine the way it is. Can't you just block it when done to make it flat? And as a curvy woman, I personally think that flat is overrated anyway!

Of course, I'm guilty of much unraveling in my time, which could be why I prefer crochet - I lose fewer stitches that way... If you really don't want to continue with the pattern as is, I suppose you could break the yarn and make it a potholder.

Gail, thanks for the heads up. IT IS SO ANNOYING (not to mention against copyright) when people use my pictures or content without my permission -- but to post a picture of ME -- my high school picture -- as your own? ABSURD.

Posting someone else's content is not just dumb, it's illegal. But to use someone else's picture as if that's a picture of you is also creepy.

I notified her and of course we'll have to send the regular cease & desist letter to blogger to close her account if she doesn't remove it.

Go over to the blog Skeins Her Way and see one of here recent posts: she unraveled JUST A CABLE IN THE CENTER. Not just a stitch, but an ENTIRE CABLE. I was thoroughly impressed. And terrified :-)

Oh and as always I appreciate it when ya'll alert me to people using my content as their own. Thanks!

Didn't read all the comments, so maybe someone already suggested this.

I take a large needle and thread with dental floss and then try to go through all the stitches in the row you want to go back to... then when you frog it, it will stop on that row and you can pick up the stitches again.

I feel your pain! One rule of thumb with cables is that you have to have purl stitches surrounding the cables' edges. By using a seed sticth, there'll be times where the cable is surrounded with a knit stitch and the cable's edge is lost. In order to avoid the twisted/pulling on your seed stitch bottom border, you'd have to start your cable at the beginning. People have certainly given you great advice to inserting a needle then frogging. I have done this PLENTY of times -- using a yarn needle is a lot easier than a knitting needle -- it's more flexible, especially since you are going through purl/knit stitches on one row. But becareful not to accidentally pick up a stitch on a previous row. Also, when you get to putting yoru stitches back onto a knitting needle, keep in mind which way a purl stitch goes onto the needle and which way a knit stitch goes onto a needle. But have no fear. If you get the stitches on the knitting needle backwards, just slip the incorrect stitch onto your right-hand needle and place your left hand needle either through the front or back of the stitch (depending on whether it's a purl or knit stitch). I hope this does not sound confusing.

Hmmm...my cats like to eat whatever piece of jewelry I'm trying to make. Cats are like toddlers in that anything new must be tasted.

I love the colour, very cozy! Also I thought you should know that you just gave me the hugest craving for tea.

I don't knit but saw your book at Borders and started laughing. However, I DO love cats so maybe i will take up knitting.

You are a HOOT!

Land of Lakes makes some great hot chocolate flavors.

Bonjour, Laurie. Je c'est Cathryn. (If that sentence doesn't make any sense, I beg your pardon. My high school French is very dim). Here's some stuff I can say! Omelettes aux fines herbes. Gateau de fromage. Chat.

Anyway, that scarf is beau, ne c'est pas? I'm making a hat out of my Misti Alpaca, and it's coming along well. I need to get less slippery DPNs, however. At least I know the stitches are prone to slip, so I can catch them up again. I can't be of any help with the cable. Sorry! Wish I could, but I have only done one cabled thing, and it knit up fine. Good luck!

Je parle un peu francais, mais pas tres bien. I know enough to drive my husband wild. ;) He'll never know that I'm simply asking where the bathroom is or for pizza with no mushrooms. Ah, high school French!

Before the next zillion comments come in, I'd like to mention I discovered, in an emergency situation, a fabulous tool, perfect for picking up AND HOLDING dropped stitches, OR for holding SECTIONS OF KNITTING!

Behold: The Extra-Long Bobby Pin. The Extra-Long that I happened to have in my hair at the time of said emergency. It doesn't even have the ... bobby-bumps that shorter bobby pins have. But the curled tip is great for picking up stitches, and the pin itself holds one or more stitches at a time, and you can apply them in ones or by the dozen, as you need. And! You can usually get a bunch for a dollar at the dollar store or a beauty supply store! Or $1.99 at Rite-Aid, etc. And you can use them in rollers when you're not dropping stitches! But they really are the best darned instruments I've found for keeping stitches together that need to be kept together, especially if a bunch of stitches are getting moved at once.

delurking long enough to say that if you want to add new stitches, you will need to unravel the whole thing down to that point, not just the cable stitches. Someone up there said the same thing I would - that you just let 'er rip back to about 1-2 rows above where you wanted those stitches and then tink back to where you really want to be. It'll be okay, really.

Oh and also, I have the exact same pink phone. Does that make me as funny and chic and cool as you? (hope springs eternal!) Maybe if I'm still using the word cool, it's too late for me. Alas.

Anyway, you'll be fine. Extra time to play with yarn so soft it's worth eating. Also Lindt chocolate is my most favorite for knitting (or anything else) accompaniment.

My suggestion: Put the sections you're not unraveling on stitch holders, not just needles, so you don't have to worry about the stitches sliding off. Personally I like the Susan Bates stitch holders, which are slim pointy gray metal bits, with a spring alongside which you detach at one end. (You may remember curlers which worked on the same principle, using elastic in place of springs.) The SB stitch holders come 3 to a package for about 5 bucks, and even JoAnn's carries them.

Parking the stitches on the middle of a dangling circular needle might work just as well.

Unraveling just one section, and reknitting it, is easier than it looks. Most of knitting is, actually, but -- shhhh! -- don't tell anyone.

I hate frogging, but I've found it's gotten easier the more I've done it and what I usually do is decide: Will this drive me crazy if I leave it? Or crazier if I frog it? And sometimes I don't let my hubby see it because it freaks him out to see me ripping out acres and acres of knitting. And sometimes I make sure he sees it so he can see that I am Woman, hear me frog! Who would have thought that knitting would make me look tough? Anyway, good luck, I mean bon chance! Hey, 8 years of French in school and I can say good luck--go moi:)

I have done this exact thing, because I too hate to unravel! Thread your needle through the stitches in the row before things went wrong, then unravel like a madwoman!
As you're (re)knitting that next row, you may notice that you put the rescue needle into a stitch the wrong way and twisted it (the stitch, not the needle)... but no fear, just pick it up with the other needle and turn it around when you come to it.
If you end up liking the technique, great! And, if it seems like it's not worth the hassle, you haven't lost anything -- you can still rip all the way back.
Also: I agree about multi-tasking. I teach technology on a college campus, and I tell my classes that multi-tasking is a myth -- it's really just serial unitasking. I'd love to know where you saw that article!

there is so little in life that we can control, that we can do perfectly (almost). my knitting is something that i can obsess over to my heart's content and i rip things all the time if i'm not happy. i just finished a scarf in that very same yarn and color--allow me to compliment you on your good taste.

Laurie, as usual, you, your knitting and Bob are DIVINE!
Your yarn looks scrumptious. I can't wait to win a pair of those Knit Picks needles....you are gonna choose me, right?

Hmmmm. I've tried dropping a cable and picking it up differently, and it wasn't a stunning success. (Dismal failure, actually, and I ended up ripping after all.) I'd thread a really skinny needle through the last row you want to keep, rip it back to there, and then reknit, making the changes you want. (Btw, I work without a pattern a lot, so I rip back A LOT!) Just the price I pay, I guess. Scarf looks lovely as is, too.

Have you seen this video? I spent about a day watching it over and over again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hrUGFhsXo

You've got so much great advice about the ripping, I'll just say that I agree with you COMPLETELY about the multi-tasking Myth. This is why I have been in two accidents, hit by drivers who were on cellphones. Them? multi-tasking. Me? months of physical therapy, both times. A little gin with my bitters, please.

Just wanted to say that I love that photo! I think the funky, modern clock makes it! That would make a great postcard! I love it - Bob with the Eiffel Tower in the background!

I'm such a lame-oh-lame-o knitter. I still haven't learned to cable. I'm too hyper/caffeinated to figure it out!

The advice about using a smaller needle and about stopping the mad ripping a row or two above where you want to rip to are both excellent. It will take a tad more time, but not like if you accidentally rip way too far. Other advice? Don't let Bob help.

Same as others said, smaller needle and rip with abandon, then abandon ripping (heh)about 2 rows above your stopping point and tink from there. The Encyclopedia of Knitting also has some good pictures of how to do insert a knitting needle as the stopper. I've done both, but do the former most often.

Maureen

So, my cat eats yarn too. I'll see him leaving the general vicinity of my yarn basket with a piece hanging out of his mouth, and if I go after him he swallows the whole thing! Does he have a yarn ball built up in his stomach now? Will it come out of the front end or the back end? I wonder...

I've unraveled that way many times (due to being the kind of lacksadasial and/or careless knitter I am). I almost always manage to get the stitches facing the wrong way. For stockinette it is pretty to easy to just turn the stitch around when I get to it to reknit.

If it is going to be more complicated for me (seed stitch would count as complicated for me to do this with) I just run the needle (I use circular 'cos the cable is a little easier for me to handle) through on a row a couple rows above where I want to unravel down to and then I tink those last few rows.

Either way, the secret is to be consistent and grab the same side of the stitch all the way across. Even if you do something kind of wacky, you can always tink a row.

I can't add anything more to all these great suggestions, except get out the 2.50 magnifiers!! These days, when I want to do the really fiddly stuff, I put on the BIG reading glasses, and everything becomes so clear. Takes a lot of the stress out of watching those loops pop apart.
And those needles are just yummy! I love how the colors look with the yarn. mmmmmmmm

Love, love, love that aqua yarn. Me? I just usually rip it ALL out and start again. Like I said, that's only ME.

Blessings,

Sher

Make sure you use a smaller size needle when you poke it into your knitting down where you want to unravel to. (Hey - I can make nonsensicle sentences, too!) You might also want another knitter around for courage, and to pass you the wine. Good luck!

Laurie -

LOVE the seed stitch! Looks great! Perhaps the drawing in could be lessened by having more plain rows in between the cable rows? Also do not forget to have a purl stitch on either side of the cable, which means that every other row you will have two purls in a row. However, that column of stitches sort of tucks back and it wouldn't be noticable at all.

Personally, I love cables, but have not mastered knitting them. I sit there and chant "cable on row 5, cable on row 5" right up until the exact stitch I must cable, then just blow right past it for several rows until I remember. Obviously this is followed by cursing viciously and ripping it all back. I did this on my first cable scarf AT EVERY SINGLE cable row, until I finally stuck it in a bag and put it in the back of the closet. I think I have knit a grand total of a foot on it, and every time I see it I mutter darkly.

wow, that didn't sound quite so psychotic until I wrote it all out....

I do love this yarn. I knitted one scarf and now have another color to knit a second one. Hurry with the pattern so I can knit it up. Just kidding, I know how hard it is to rip, but in my experience you are much better off. It's probably one bus trip worth and on the way home you can be knitting again. Good luck, Maggie

I see lots of solutions for ripping back...how about getting your cat to quit eating your yarn??? Mine will eat just about any yarn, but he prefers 100% wool already knit into socks. :-(

I LOVE to rip misbehaving knits! I love a do-over! I love reclaiming all the potential in a really yummy skein of yarn! Ripping is sooooo much better than tinking (un-knitting) in my opinion. Here's my TIP: use a SMALLER NEEDLE to stick it through the row. That way it will be easy to navigate around all those stitches. Also, if you can, use a smooth tipped needle to avoid piercing those lovely alpaca plies. Good luck! You can do it!

This looks like a blanket I made (http://www.myowntwosticks.com/blog/?p=40) from the Yarn Girls, which came out fine once blocked.

"knitting backwards"

Lily, that's brilliant! Thank you! (I also hate unraveling)

Actually, everyone has great ideas, which is why I lurk here all the time :)

I'm currently working on a cabled scarf with moss stitch border whose pattern I snagged from the Lion Brand website of all places. I found it (I think) from linking off knittingpatterncentral.com. Maybe it'll give you some ideas. I'm knitting it up in baby blue Alpaca/Silk Dk (doubled) from Debbie Bliss and it looks and feels yummy. Good luck with yours and I can't wait to see finished pics.

Jen

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/50368.html

This scarf reminds me of a seed stitch scarf I just finished. I did it on the trip to my boyfriend's parents house. And during the three day stay. And during the three hour ride back. Everyone there thought it was nice, but I know that knitters will see it and know the intestinal fortitude it took to knit a 6'x 8" scarf in seed stitch. It's really pretty too!

Laziness in French is "la paresse". Doesn't it sound pretty? Like, butt vs. derriere. I wonder if parisians say "Ma butt" when they want to sound more polite?

If you need to rip back -- try using the circular needle and start from the other end, loosen the loop and put stitches loosened by "second" row back on a smaller needle -- do it again, again, again, winding "butterflies" of the raveled yarn to keep from stretching it. If you need more sts in the cable, should have been put in as you started; try increase behind/beside cable crossing. Maybe starting purl st at the edge of the cable. Try thinking of seed st as a 1/1 rib on an uneven number of sts.
Love the cats, enjoy your blog & books.
Don't let them eat synthetic yarn -- it can cause serious interior damage as it did on a puppy friend of mine.

"Yes, I've done it before. I suggest you use a needle several sizes smaller than what you are working on. Say you're using a 6mm needle (sorry, I'm Canadian) then go down to a 4mm or smaller. This will make it easier for you to get the stitches onto the needle. And you can just start knitting off the needle when you start back up again using your regular needle size."

I agree with what LaurieM said earlier in the comments. That is exactly what I do (minus the Canadian part) & it works great!

I've also done what other posters have mentioned with regards to only fixing one cable & leaving the other stitches in place. In that instance, I thread a stitch holder just below the stitches that need fixing. (There are pictures in my Flickr of this, actually, & I'm planning on doing a blog post about it soon.)

that's a beautiful color and I actually like your stitch. Simple, uncomplicated, and it looks great!

First, I absolutely love your whole writing style and all of that jazz. You've made me seriously consider taking up knitting! =)

I just had a quick question after reading how you don't often get to make use of all of your knitted things..... have you ever considered finding a way to donate knitted things to poor people in colder climates? Living in Massachusetts, I know that there's definitely a strong need for warm things from about mid-Oct. (we've already had a few frosts!) until almost April or so. Just a thought I had while considering finding someone to teach me how to knit so I could donate. =)

I have dropped stitches in cables to reknit them - I recommend having lots of double pointed needles on hand. I usually leave the edge stitches on the needles I'm already using, and drop the involved stitches down as far as I need to. Then I reknit each row using the loop of yarn left from dropping down. The double points allow me to switch directions after each row has been reknit. It looks a little wonky at first, but straightens out when blocked. Good luck!

The seed stitch looks really good in between the cables. What I really wanted to say though was that I like your home office (Bob and the computer reminded me). I like how light it is. I wanted to say that some months back when you first posted pictures.

Coming way late to the party... I've tried to rip out and redo just a cable, and had the devil's own time with it. (Sacré bleu!) For me it's just easier to rip the whole thing back if cables are involved (sadly, with me, they often are). However, it sounds like what you really want to do is leave the cables as they are and transform the middle from seed stitch to all reverse stockinette, and this is easy. I would do one stitch at a time, drop it down to where you want to start the reverse st st, and pick it back up one row at a time with a crochet hook. This is a bit of a nuisance as you have to keep moving the hook to the other side (if you try it you'll see what I mean), but it works. There are a zillion sites that show you how to do this -- just google pick up dropped stitch knitting. I too think c'est un écharpe tout à fait charmant, but I understand about wanting things the way you want them. Chacune à son goût. If I were doing it I would try it on a swatch first, in fact I would try the whole (new and improved) pattern on a swatch first... but then you might end up with two scarves. (My swatches/stitch-pattern tryouts tend to end up as charity squares. I am in no way suggesting here that you should knit for charity or for a particular charity, just that it's a way to make a swatch useful when you're done with it. Moving on.)

Lifelines are good. I myself am currently using a lifeline on brioche stitch, one of the world's simplest stitches, after dropping a stitch not once but twice, the first time losing about 18 inches of scarf in the process. (If anyone knows of a tutorial for dropping down and picking up in brioche stitch, I'd love to see it.) I feel tellement sotte, but it's not nearly as stupide as all that grenouillage. (Grenouillement? Grenouille is French for frog. I think I'm getting carried away here.)

That yarn is gorgeous. It's lucky for you I can't reach through the monitor and grab it. (Quel dommage.)

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Truffle bar.

(you see where my focus is!)

We are cell phone twins. Heh.