First Time Ripping Out Many Rows of Knitting

I’ve begun knitting the Marshland pullover sweater by Tin Can Knits – see the pattern link at the end of this page. The pattern is in the “Strange Brew” book. I chose this pattern because I had worsted weight yarn to use.

Something is wrong — I have too many stitches

Because the pattern colorwork looks to me like it was meant more for a man – it’s a unisex design, I decided to change up the knitting with other color patterns. The pink rows and the last yellow and green rows are different from the suggested pattern. However, all that was ripped back and I didn’t re-do it the same way.

The yellow Arranmore yarn was purchased to knit “Big Love” – a cardigan. That pattern was confusing, so I never knit it. I’m using other stash yarn, and some is not exactly the same weight as the Arranmore, but oh well.

How to unravel knitting mistakes — First time doing this – pick up right hand side of each knit stitch, all the way around. This will be the new starting row.

The “Make One” Rows

The pattern calls for places where M1 is needed – that is “make one” – and a stitch must be added. There is no suggestion about how to make a stitch, so you’d better have a favorite way! (HINT: Use the backwards loop method.)

On the very last increase row of the yoke, I somehow added too many M1’s and ended up with way too many stitches. I didn’t realize this, and kept knitting…. HINT / NOTE TO SELF: Count your stitches right after that last M1 row…!!!!!

In my photo above, my mistake row was in the brown section just below the pink. So I picked up stitches above the pink rows to start again. Everything below the needle was removed.

How to Rip Back Many Rows

I’ve never had to fix a knitting mistake as big as this one. I could not simply un-knit some stitches. I needed to rip many rows out. So I watched a couple of really bad videos, but the gist of it was to use a needle to pick up the right side of each V knit stitch. This has to be done slowly so none are missed. Also be sure you stay on the correct / same row!

But first, I pulled out the 32 inch needle I’d been knitting with – that gave me the ability to try on my sweater (very first photo). I used the same needle I’d been using to pick up the new stitches. I did this on a non-colorwork row because it was easiest. I began at the BOR marker and continued to the end. Now I had all new stitches on my needle.

Then I had to unravel all that previous knitting and rewind the balls. I was left with this (photo below) and ready to begin again. When I got to that M1 row where my error occurred, I used stitch markers to help me count.

Mistake removed and ready to knit again — Ready to try again

Below is the same yoke on my second knit. This time I followed the pattern’s suggested colorwork design. The sleeve stitches have been put on holders and all counts are perfect. So onward I knit!

Marshland yoke colorwork second try — This time I counted stitches

Stranded colorwork knitting is fun to do, and keeps a project interesting. Katie’s Kep, the Turkish Watchcap, and the Triple Patterned Watchcap were hats I enjoyed doing in Fair Isle, aka stranded colorwork. The only other sweater I knit like this is the Umpqua and it was my first sweater.

I’ve come across one row in the Marshland design where three colors were used, but all the others are two color strands.