Should I TINK (knit back)? Should I frog (rip it, rip it)? Should I fudge a mistake? How do I know when to go back with my knitting?

Some General Rules – When To Go Back

There are many factors in deciding when to undo knitting, or even when to abandon a project completely. Here are my general guidelines in how I decide.

1. Is the mistake a simple fix by dropping a stitch and laddering it down to the row with the mistake.

   1. 1. 1. I fix it by dropping a stitch in the column above the mistake, running the dropped stitch down to the mistake and picking up all stitches with a crochet hook or latch hook

2. How noticeable is the mistake? Can I  easily fudge it on a subsequent row?

   1. 1. 1. I will ignore it unless I question how much it bugs me at least three times.  After I consider it a third time, I go back and fix it.

3. How far back is the mistake?

   1. Is the mistake 3 rows back or less?
      1. How complex is the stitch pattern? If it’s really difficult to undo the stitches, or
      2. Is the mistake more than 300 stitches back?
         1. This I rip out back to the mistake and recover the first row before the mistake
      3. If I can undo knitting stitch by stitch for less than 300 stitches and it’s relatively simple:
         1. I “TINK” back to the mistake and fix it

4. Is there a major design flaw (eg. color combination, gauge, fit, fabric density, etc.)

   1. Can I design a quick fix for the flaw (add a new color for balance, block out fabric to get size, etc.?
      1. How many hours am I into the the design?
         1. Less than 4 hours of knitting will be ripped out and I’ll start again or abandon the project.
         2. More than 4 hours, I will attempt a salvage technique before re-assessing.

While I’ve been informally going through this process of assessing mistakes for years, I’ve never really codified it like this before.

How do others assess whether (and how) to fix mistakes in your knitting?

Current Knitting

I mentioned that I started a new chevron striped scarf in my last blog entry.  It is the reasonI am discussing when to go back in today’s blog entry.

I started the new project and hated the “cartoon bumblebee” look of the dark and yellow stripes. I went to 4.1 in my decision-tree and tried adding the blue stripe to see if it could be salvaged.

You’ll note it’s no longer on the needle. So, clearly it has been abandoned.

I did start a new Interlocking Crochet Scarf.

I’m using the leftover yarns from the latest Fox Paws Scarf. Remind me to tell you about my new Craft Show strategy with this idea.