So, I finally got around to blocking the spiral shawl that I started last summer. I finished it sometime in the fall, but I was too lazy busy to block it until now.
All was fine and dandy, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself, until I stood back to admire it and whammo, I saw it. ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! A big fat mistake!
Can you see it?
How about now?
Can you see it now?
Yep, there it is.
(rollover the image for a lovely highlighted effect)
I knit across one of the segments instead of doing the yarnovers!
At first I thought, "Well, maybe it's not that noticeable." I had Uncool Guy look at the shawl to see if he could find the mistake. He didn't see it. I directed his attention to the general area. He still didn't see it. I told him which segment it was in. Nope. (The man must be blind.) I had to point it out to him. That was encouraging.
However, I then located Daughter#1 and challenged her to find the mistake. (sigh) She found it within 10 seconds. (She's got a touch of the persnickety in her, that girl.)
Maybe you just have to be a knitter to see it. Anyhow, it bugs me and now it's all I can see when I look at the shawl. I'm hoping I can fix it by cutting the yarn, picking out the one offending row in that section, and kitchenering it back together with some added YO's and K2tog's. Sounds fun, huh? I'll have to test that very carefully on a swatch. (big sigh) But not anytime soon -- I'm just not up for it.
What a big fat bummer. Anyone have any other ideas?
Active...
In Time-Out...
Dead to Me...
Leave a Comment 27 comments:
Embrace it? Like the small imperfection illuminates that beauty of the rest?
Absolutely EMBRACE it, as nuttnbunny said. It's seriously not anything ANYONE would notice, including seasoned knitters, I bet, unless you point it out to them. it's a beautiful piece.
I didn't see it at first until you zoomed in on it. The Amish purposely put mistakes into their quilts because they believe only God is perfect. Their quilts are highly prized. It's fun try to find the mistake, kind of like a where's waldo puzzle. That's the thing that attracts me to their quilts over all the others out there. Tell people you put it there on purpose just like the Amish do, then challenge them to find it. It's a very beautiful shawl - don't risk destroying it.
uugh. talk about gut wrenching! i know mistakes drive me batty and must be fixed, but i gotta tell you, that shawl is gorgeous and amazing as-is.
Leave it--it rocks! besides, you wouldn't be the persnickety knitter if you didn't have something to be persnickety about, eh?
I love you, dearly. Chill the hell out. Error is life. Life is error. Perfection lies in the eyes of .... I am not gonna say it.
I am also not going to tell you in which photo I saw it, lest you go into some sort of perfectionist convulsion.
Didn't I tell you about the various traditions of intentional errors that range from the navaho to mennonites??? The only perfection is in God (or great spirit or whatever), therefore no human accomplishment can be without error. Embrace it. Relish your humanity. Thank whoever that you're not some mindless mechanical computerized drone, that you can think and feel and be human.
I didn't see it until you got up close and personal with the pictures. If it were me, I'd have a hard time letting it go but I would ultimately just *let it go* and leave it as it is.
The shawl is gorgeous, mistake or no. Wear it with pride!
ahhh, the shawl is beautiful, and I did not notice the mistake until it's closeup...but I feel your need for perfection...I would see it everytime I put it on if it were mine, then eventually fix it. Please let us know what you do...I have 2 lace shawls on the needles now and would not be surprised if I need your fix in the future!
Gah! I feel your pain. It used to be I'd ignore the mistake but it would annoy me to the point where I wouldn't wear the garment. Ever. Which was more annoying. That being said: isn't the shawl worn doubled over? If so, can't you move the boo boo side to the interior? As far as fixing it - I got nothing except prayers and good lucks. And gin.
Ah...Do not despair, child. 'Tis not that noticeable. I have made several mistakes in my time.
Maybe you can embroider it with a small vine and flowers, like how people tattoo over their surgery scars. Didn't notice it myself until nearly the last picture, and though I understand the "garrrgh!" of being spectacularly annoyed at the mistake - it's a gorgeous, beautifully knitted shawl.
hey PK, i wanted to explain the eBay thing to you... drop me a line: twellvis [at] gmail [dot] com.
:)
For what it's worth, even in the closeup it didn't look like a mistake to me. I just thought it was a change in the variegation of the yarn. (Is variegation a word?)
Instead of cutting and doing some fancy grafting, what if you took some pins and blocked out that section to make it look like there were YOs there? By that I mean stretching out stitches strategically to make holes and blocking them that way. It wouldn't be perfect, but it might blend in more.
oh, let it go! let this be the dawn of the un-persnickety!
seriously, it took me til the all-the-way-zoomed-in shot to see it, too.
me and uncool guy.
beautiful!! i couldn't even tell there was a mistake until you pointed it out. keep up the great work!!
Call it a design element. I had one in the spiral baby blanket I knit.. to me it stuck out like a sore thumb, but simply was not noticeable till then. Your shawl is lovely. Think of it as wabi sabi... perfection in the imperfect. Loveliness in the unfinished. You could call it your wabi sabi shawl.
It's beautiful, with or without that one small burpee...but my guess it that it will bother you enough to fix.
Also I've heard that whole purposefully putting mistakes into knitting/rugs/weaving work because only God/Allah/etc. is perfect thing attributed to the Amish, the Menonites, the Persian Rug makers, India shawl dyers..etc. Really, does anybody know who did it first, or does everybody use that excuse?
What a beautiful piece! I didn't even notice that row until the very last picture when I scrolled over! Great work.
It looks human and real, I think you should leave the error.
well, the last time i checked into your blog, which was a month or so ago, there was little new stuff. now i discover a wealth of postings! what the heck?? i am with anne regarding the shawl mistake...and most of your other fans, including snozberry knitter!
The Knitting Bitches of Jacksonville tried the SSS as a knitalong, and we're pretty convinced after several fiascos, that the sucker is cursed. Personally, my knitter's pride didn't get in the way of me letting the sections take on whatever size they wanted, so now that I'm ready to bind off, I'm dashed as to how to do it, because one section might be 60 stitches while another is 55 and it just ain't happening...any ideas?
Such an exquisite touch. This "mistake" is a marvelous feature in this well designed, well made knitted work of art.
Please don't fix it.
It's a gorgeous shawl! I'd have to try to fix it, but if I couldn't reknit the section on a swatch, I'd just forget about the error. FWIW, Lucy Neatby has instructions on how to do a multi-row surgical replacement on her "Knitting Gems 4" DVD, as one of her "daring rescue attempts."
You know - I couldn't see it....and really, won't you wear it doubled over? Just tuck that bit underneath and "Bob's your uncle"...
I must be blind, too! I didn't see it till that last shot. Even then, it looks like part of the design elements. I say leave it and love it!
I would leave it. But then I've never thought of myself being perfect. The shawl is lovely and I like the "where's Waldo" idea Anne had. She's right about the Amish purposely putting in a mistake ... but I can do that without even trying, LOL. So I've learned to accept it and embrace my imperfections.
Dear Ms Persnicky knitter There is a saying in Amish Country... Something like " Only God can Make A quilt perfect." So on purpose they make a mistake on ALL their work..
I would point it out as your humility that We humans do make mistakes... but I have to say... your shawl is breathtaking, JUST as it is!!
Knitted row and all.
I had to laugh though at your highlighting it... How did you do that on blogger?
in awe of your shawl, grace in VT