Abrasion

I was making some progress on the surprise sweater, but I am currently stalled.

I finally realized that for every four pairs of rows knitted, I needed to put one stitch in hold every three rows at this gauge in order to make a perfect (well, almost perfect) 45-degree angle.  I was working away and feeling really proud of myself at how well the miter was shaping up (pun intended) when I noticed two problems. 

Can you see it here?  The first problem is that the reason you can see the diagonal line of my miter so well is that there are HOLES in my knitting.  These might be caused because I was not paying any attention to wrapping when I was short-rowing.   These stitches are also showing abrasion from the carriage passing over them.

The second problem which might be a little more difficult to see in this photo, is even on the area of the garment that is in hold position, there is abrasion and pilling at the current row.  I believe this is caused by the brushes rubbing the same stitches on every pass of the carriage.  I am making sure to take the carriage past the row counter to keep track of my knitting, and each time, the stitches are irritated.  You can see a "hazy" line under the needles, like a little cloud of fuzz.

Well, this garment will not be worn on church on Sundays, the way it is currently going.  I have a couple of choices.

1. Rip back the entire miter, and the last two or three rows prior to beginning the miter, break the yarn, and throw away (or use for future waste yarn) and find my place in tuck stitch, then resume knitting with my new knowledge, hoping there is enough yarn to finish the sweater.

2. Continue with this garment from where I currently am, and treat it as a fitting garment, what we call a muslin in the sewing world.  Did I mention that this yarn was free along with the purchase of a slightly (hahaha) used knitting machine?   Make the final garment in a better yarn (hoping to get same gauge), and this time, prevent the holes and the abrasion from occurring.  After fitting the garment and making any needed adjustments, cut this up and make doll blankets out of it by serging the edges and putting a ribbon trim.

3. Continue with this garment from where I currently am, and come up with a creative way to embellish it to cover up the problems.  Embroidery?  Applied I-cord? 

Since I managed to drop 75 percent of the stitches when I put the needles back in work to start the next section,  I just covered the machine up and left it, until the next time we visit the farm.  This project is taking a time-out while I decide which approach I will take. 

In the meantime, I am thinking about how I will avoid this abrasion the next miter or the next time I knit this sweater.   I think the best approach will be to take the "held" stitches off on waste yarn while knitting the miter.  This includes the stitches in the miter as well as the left side of the garment in hold at the beginning.    Then there will be no possibility of the carriage abrading the stitches. It will mean some extra time to rehang them before starting the next section, but I can just consider it part of my meditative practice.