Unraveled, February 4, 2026

I’m joining with my fellow knitters and readers over at Kat’s blog this week to talk, well, knitting and reading. I’m sad to say that there was some unraveling since last we met but I’m relieved to say that all is well and moving forward now.

I started Hannah’s Waffle Pullover on Saturday, after knitting a gauge swatch during the Bang Out a Sweater Zoom session. The class is great, by the way, and Lorilee Beltman is delightful and knowledgeable and full of knitting tips and tricks. We practiced the mosaic pattern, increases, and German short rows on our swatches and, let me tell you, the beginning of this sweater is a LOT. Once you knit the ribbed collar, you are immediately knitting in mosaic while doing increases and the mosaic pattern. Oof.

I knew I had made a mistake in the short rows of Hannah’s sweater but I had to set it aside and think about it overnight before I could figure it out. Fresh eyes in the morning showed me that I had purled across where I should have knit across. While that sure sounds like a rookie mistake, I feel it necessary to point out that with the short rows on this yoke, you may start a row on the right side of the pattern but then switch to the wrong side at some point and you really really need to pay attention to each little detail of the instructions.

Fortunately, I had only knit 4 rows before I saw my error (which was in row 2) so I ripped back and restarted and about 2 hours later I had completed the back neck shaping and knit 2 rows of the yoke shaping.

And then I had an idea. In the words of Dr. Seuss, it was a wonderful, awful idea. I decided I should start my Waffle Pullover (did I mention I bought yarn for one for Hannah AND one for me?) and knit those back neck short rows while it was fresh in my mind. It can’t say it was any more pleasant the second time around but I can say it was less nerve wrecking and at least it felt familiar.

I’m now moving forward on Hannah’s sweater and mine is at a great point when it comes time to pick it up again. And, as Kym very aptly pointed out, I did Future Carole a real favor because I think knowing I had to face those short rows on my sweater would have been a real barrier to actually knitting it.

As for reading, I finished 2 books last week (more on those when I share my monthly GoodReads reviews, which I will do tomorrow) and I started It Girl by Allison Pataki, and ARC that was sent to me by the publisher. I am not very far into it so I will save any opinions until I have read more.

What are you making and reading this week?

Discover more from Carole Knits

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Related Posts

Comments (7)

  1. I think that was a genius idea, Carole! Now you have sweater knitting to look forward to in the future rather than sweater knitting dread. I have been wondering where you were since I have not been getting your posts in my email. So, I finally looked, and there you are! I will have to start checking in with you without reminders, I guess. I haven’t left my house in 10 days. I am thoroughly iced in, and I have a critical case of cabin fever.

  2. That was a genius move, Carole . . . getting the short section done and out of the way on your 2nd sweater! You’ll never regret it. . .

  3. Thank God for those genius moments, huh? Good idea to get the hard part of your sweater out of the way. I’m still working on Family Socks and have just started The Black Wolf. I did not really like The Grey Wolf, so I’m hoping this is better (ay least it is – so far – set in Three Pines).

  4. That was a terrific idea! Congratulations on successfully starting both sweaters and now you can (hopefully) relax and bang out a sweater.

  5. What a great idea. Those short rows sound very challenging. The colors you have going are lovely. I’m knitting a second sleeve and just began reading “The Eights.”

  6. It was a brilliant move to do those short rows now. Now you can look forward to working on YOUR sweater, too.

  7. Huzzah!! You win the knitting olympics gold medal this week! Genius idea, Carole! GENUIS!! I love both color combinations you are knitting! (and really, how on earth did Amy C figure all that out!?) I was getting messed up on the “beyond the short rows” increase sections… sigh. I had to unravel back because I forgot an increase in one of the rows. I was not at all sure of my ability to just drop back a couple of rows of stitches to make those increases… so unravel was my smart choice! I am back on track and working through the repeat sections!

Comments are closed.

Back To Top