Bi-Polar /Kill Me Now

I was too tired last night after my knitting marathon to bother taking one little photo and posting my triumph. Last night's post would have looked like this:

FINISHED!


Yes, I had yarn left over. Barely. I bound off and broke yarn in triumph. One gift down, four to go, 12 days left to knit furiously and block FOs.

This morning, I grabbed the scarf, eager to photograph it pre-blocking before either

• starting one of the pairs of socks or
• continuing on the Besotted Twins

That's when I saw it. And that's why today's post is KILL ME NOW.

Look (if your eyes are as weary as mine, click to enlarge):


Can't see it? Here, try this:


GRRRRRR.

It was FINE when I left it. I took photos! Everything was woven exactly as it should be. I took the photos, got online, did my post, got offline, picked up the scarf, carried it into the kitchen, sat down and carefully re-wove the fingers to make sure they were all in the right order... started knitting. Knit a few rows, examined it for accuracy, proclaimed it perfect, noticed nothing amiss, continued knitting. Put it down for the night. Picked it up last night. Watched three episodes of Six Feet Under on Bravo while finishing the scarf. Bound off. Brought it into the kitchen (out of cat paw range). Went to bed.

Picked it up this morning and that's when it appeared before my eyes—the error so glaringly obvious that could be seen in pitch darkness by a blind man.

If I hadn't been so defeated and depressed about it, I might have laughed reading my horoscope:

Have you ever tripped while walking down the sidewalk, looked to see what caught your foot, and seen nothing but smooth, clean pavement? Invisible barriers and minuscule details can trip you up for no particular reason, and today you should be prepared for these types of little surprises. Right now, you can't outsmart the forces guiding you, so do not try to use organization to ensure smooth sailing. There's no fighting the chaos life brings sometimes.

*ahem* "Little surprises"?

If it were simply a stitch out of place or something only a knitter would notice, I'd ignore it (after all, it's a gift, not like I'll ever see it again). But, since it's so painfully noticeable—hell, it's the centerpiece of the design, the whole reason FOR knitting this—it has to be fixed. I have two choices (neither of which I'll pursue today, after reading that):

• unbind, frog, re-weave, reknit OR
• the more terrifying option of cutting a stitch on the miswoven finger, separating, re-weaving that one finger, picking up the live stitches on the scarf and I-cord, and grafting (good thing there's some yarn left over)

I've never steeked or done anything remotely like it, and like Addi Turbos, it scares me... almost to the point of Frog City. It's especially frightening because I-cord is involved. Of course, there is always Option #3 (for the exceptionally AR types like myself): using garbage yarn, knit up a swatch with a couple mini-I-cord fingers, whack it up, and practice first. Kind of like practicing tricky surgery on a cadaver before hacking up the living human.

For the moment, the scarf will sit while I work on other things and give you all a chance to respond. One of you experience knitters can guide me toward the right solution before I make a complete mess of this project.

First I nearly disembowel my eye with a knitting needle, then I mess up a vital design option... should I just give up and hit Target in a mad dash instead? Is the Universe sending me a message? Perhaps the message is (thank you, Franklin, with minor liberties):

"You should have started in Juuuune..." (of 2004, obviously)

Edit: 5:37 PM I suppose I could always try EZ's method and just ladder down to the affected I-cord, and see if that will work... except for its being connected and woven... HMMMmmmm... (and yes, for those of you wondering if I'm really THAT A-Retentive, I just finished knitting my cadaver swatch).

posted by Jeanne @ 4:08 PM