Knitted sweater: forgot to do whole row of decreases

[CRbear]

Hi,

I am making a Marius sweater which is a classic Norwegian pattern with three colours.

I was meant to do a row with 58 decreases 17 rows before the neckline, w"fell jevnt fordelt" arrow on the attached picture, but I was so excited to start a new colour I jumped straight to that and forgot to do it...

I am now starting the third row above where I should have done it, 14 rows before the neckline and the blue arrow in the picture. This and the next row are plain. Can I do the decreases here instead? I am loathe to rip back two lines when I am so close to the end... would it affect the fit to do it 3 rows late?

I have another row of decreases 7 rows before the neckline so I am still quite a way from there...

All help gratefully received!

If I were you I'd probably just rip back & do the decrease in the right place. Only because any time I've not and tried to correct later I've not been happy with the finished piece.

I've never actually knitted anything as big as a jumper but I know I'd be a bit upset if I got to the end and found that it didn't look quite right. It might be that it's fine to do the decrease now but I'd rather know that I'm going to be happy with the finished item than risk it to be honest.

That said I'm currently working on a lace shawl and I've made quite a few mistakes along the way that I've just tried to correct rather than ripping back! I'm hoping the lacework will be more forgiving as long as the number of stitches is correct!

I agree, I would rip it back rather than risk always looking at the sweater thinking 'damn those decreases are in the wrong place'.

Fortunately because the colour pattern is such a short repeat you at least aren't out of alignment, but as you're only a few rows above where it should have been, it will be less painful to rip back than it would have been otherwise. That said, how are you at picking up raw stitches? There's no way I could bear to tink (reverse knit) that far back, I would just take the whole lot off the needles and then pick them back up again. If you haven't done that before, don't try it out on such a large number of stitches - the lesser of two evils would be to decrease where you are.

I would definitely tink back on a neckline and redo it, just because there are so many decreases in that row. It may come out a funny shape otherwise.

I thought this might be the consensus...thanks for your input!

I know how to knit backwards, but didn't know it was called tinking. I think I will do that as I have never taken my work off the needles and I couldn't bare it if I dropped a stitch...there is a really complex pattern beneath it. It's going to take forever!

I think you're right that it's worth doing, I have spent over a year on this already, not to mention the cost of wool, and want it to be perfect! Thanks again.

Very painful but you've put such a lot of effort in - it will be worth it!

I find that if I've to rip out some work (which is quite often as I'm still learning and seem to make quite a few mistakes ) it's much easier to use a much smaller size needle to pick up the stitches rather than the size I'm using. Seems to be much easier with the narrower needle and then I transfer it back onto the proper needles. Hopefully when I get more experienced I can be a bit more confident about dealing with picking up fiddly stitches properly but this way seems to work for me atm. :)

Yes, that's a good idea soloula. When you finally finish this jumper, CRBear, it might be worth experimenting on something a bit less intricate - stitches don't actually fall apart that easily - if your jumper is pure (non superwash) wool you could probably cut it up the middle and it would be fine, obviously DON'T DO THIS! But it's what's called steeking, and it's a bit like bungee jumping for knitters.

Anyway, I digress - picking up stitches is fine as long as you know what to look for and how to deal with any stitches which have dropped more rows back than the ones around them, the same as any dropped stitch. Tinking is much slower but less risky.

I successfully "tinked" back three rows and put in the decreases. I am back to wear I started and beyond now- it didn't take that long. This is my first ever proper project so I am glad I did it properly.

I did try removing the needles from 10 stitches to see how hard it would be to do on mass, as an experiment, but they fell apart quickly and easily they were hard to pick up with different colours. It is pure wool, they don't seem that stable tribpot. I will try on a smaller project as you suggest though- it would be handy to be able to do!

I have seen steeking in youtube videos, it seems to be quite a common method in jumper patterns here in Norway, with sewing machine stitches up either side of the cut though, but I don't know if I could bring myself to do it ever!

Thanks for your help. I should be finished this weekend if I don't make any other big errors :)

Yes on a stranded row with multiple colours it will be hard - on plain knitting much easier.

Really glad it wasn't too painful to get back to where you were, onwards and upwards towards the end now!

Yes, steeking is a northern knitting tradition (Shetland, Norway etc) as it's so much easier to do stranded knitting in the round. But if you want a blanket or a cardigan or indeed even arm holes this creates a problem! Talking of which, do you still have the arms to do on this jumper? I hope not, I hate doing the arms.

if I have to undo anything I tend to whip it all off the needles, unravel to the row before and then get the needle ready (a smaller size is a good idea as a PP said) and then just unravel/undo each stitch of the last row one at a time, and whip it onto the needle as I go

Just remember to not continue with the smaller needle.

I generally always go back if it is something big as it really does just bug me if I know there's a mistake.

Ah that is interesting tribpot and makes sense!

No arms are done thank goodness, I am really close to the end. I did this bottom up method and set the arms and body together on one large round needle 7 rows before the pattern started. I had to drop off ten stitches at either armpit on both arms/body and then I grafted them together when they were set in.

This method is called "rund sal" - google tells me this is round yoke? I learnt here in Norway and it's weird being English and knowing knitting better in another language! I really like it, but then again I have nothing to compare it with.

That's a good method suggestion Tondelaya, will also try that in my experimenting. This was only 3 rows though so easy to pull too far.

Yep, I've seen sweaters constructed like this, where you join the arms and body together on one massive needle and then do the yoke all in a piece. You might like Kate Davies' excellent book Yokes which talks about the history and fantastic variations of yoke design. The Shetland designer Ella Gordon will often machine knit the body and sleeves of a yoked sweater and then join them together to hand knit the yoke - she's blogged about this a number of times]].