Rippin Or Droppin

My creamy white, summer sweater had an OOPS! when I showed it to you yesterday. 

 

While I am normally of the  'if you can't see it from a galloping horse it doesn't require fixing' school of thought, this was definitely an oops! that needed repair.

My  choice was to rip back all the knitting   to get to the problem area, or drop only the stitches in the lace area down to the problem row.  Dropping down 15 stitches seemed a much faster, a much easier, a much smarter idea to me and that is what I did  - the first time. Shown here, I have the 15 stitches dropped down  to the problem row and ready to be worked.

But, what I discovered was that the error occurred not because I was tired after a long day at the ball park, but because the lace pattern and I were not getting along.  I should have picked a lace pattern  with a 'purl- back' row.  Instead, my  lace panel requires lace work on every row.  When I start the purl rows, I often say/think to myself  " Ah the nothing-special-to-do-purl row.  Which for every stitch in the sweater  except those 15,  is right.  Nothing special to do.  The 15 however require the same lace pattern as on the knit rows.  Not to do so is an easy-to-spot mistake.

Normally I would strongly recommend a drop-down repair for mistakes of this nature:  Cable mis-cross, lace repair or twisted stitches. It makes much more sense to drop down  15 stitches and ladder or knit  them back up correctly than to rip back inches of knitting.

And it should have worked.  If it weren't for my short attention span.  After the first drop down repair, I knit merrily along only to forget the lace work in the centre 15 stitches yet again.  And again.

 

 My attention obviously drifts on the purl rows.    My second drop-down repair didn't go as well as the first.  Time to rip back.

Ripping back  is a set back.  So much so, that my goal last night morphed into getting  back to where I started.  I think I did.  There is a bit more completed today than yesterday. 

 

And I now have double markers at each end of the lace pattern.  My memory can use the extra help.