Nephew Vest #2

I finally got started on the second argyle sweater vest for the other two-year old nephew. Then I got on a roll and knitted and knitted and knitted, while at the same time spending a weekend watching all of season one of Downton Abbey, my new favorite show. One Sunday night, I looked down and realized I had gone several inches past the point where I should have stopped and decreased for the arm and neck holes.

(insert choice swear words here)

The god of knitting has taught me nothing if not patience and humility. I knew the only answer was to learn some good backing-up technique (known in knitting circles as "frogging," because you "rip it, rip it"). I do this all the time when I get to the end of a row and realize I've messed something up. But I've never frogged on this scale before. I've never torn out inches of work before.



To make things worse, I had already worked in all the ends from all those colorful diamonds. I learned the first time I did this vest that you can save yourself a lot of crazy mess anxiety with all those strands hanging off the back if you stop periodically and work them in. This does not come in handy when you have to rip it out. Not only is it more work I did for naught, but it made the ripping out process all knotty. Not fun.

But I did it anyway. I got really good visual instructions from knitty.com. Basically you pick a row you want to go back to, and then insert a needle into the right leg of every knit stitch all the way across your piece. Then you just start pulling out everything above it.