Duster Disaster/Miracle

I hardly know where to begin, so let me start by saying that Norah Gaughan is divine. I'm a huge fan, as the drool stains on my copy of "Knitting Nature" can attest. We've had a very cool spring here in the Pacific Northwest so I got a jump on making her Tilted Duster so I'd have it for autumn. I was thrilled to finish the skirt and even though it was supposed to be 90 degrees yesterday, I decided to knit the collar.

Oops. That's when I saw the unbelievably stupid and huge mistake. Take a look:

Do you see it?

No?








Have a closer look:


Yes, I had carefully attached the left and right front bodice pieces to the wrong sides. Now, I have been knitting since I was seven and sewing since I was eight. I know how garments go together, so how did this happen? Well, I have ADD, and I didn't read one little phrase in the pattern carefully enough. When making the right front, just prior to binding off for the armhole, it says "Mark beg of last RS row completed with removable m or scrap yarn (to mark armhole)."

Italics mine. Yup, I saw that marker when I was putting my my pieces together, and figured it had to be there for a reason. To mark the armhole! So, against my initial instinct I sewed it up as you see above, picked up the stitches and knit the entire skirt.

When I realized my gigantic mistake, the first thing I did was go on ravelry, to the Norah Gaughan group and share my tale of woe. I swear that within five minutes, the amazing Ms. Gaughan herself responded! Here's what she told me:

I think I understand what you are saying. I’ve had to face a lot of these kinds of emergencies in my career.
I think you should bravely clip a thread of the pick up row on each front and, stitch by stitch, pull out just as much of that row as you need to in order to free the fronts from the skirt. If you’ve used peruvia or another wooly yarn, the loops of the skirt won’t be going anywhere. After switching the fronts You then can graft the skirt back onto the fronts - or join yarn, bind off and sew them back on.

You can do it!

With words of wisdom and encouragement like that from the Divine Miss G, I had to push through and do it.

I never cut a piece of knitting before.

Avoided steeking all these years.

I had to do this, not because I couldn't frog the whole skirt and knit it again, but because frogging would have been the easy way out. I know how to frog! Done it many, many times. But this "surgery" was a knitting challenge. I wanted to prove that I'm smart enough to cut and reattach pieces of knitting.

So, I did it. The first "cut" was not great, and had to reknit the right front, but the second cut was right on. Have a look:

Here's the one that I "goofed" on, but still, the skirt is saved, so far!

I cried only once. Well, maybe a few times. I yelled at my kids a couple of times when they had the audacity to try and talk to me. I played with these circular needles again and again until I knew where and what to cut, and what to do next.

Deep breath.

Here's the skirt, liberated:

And here is the left front, ready to reattach.


















And finally, here are the photos of he deed, done. Today I knit the collar, tomorrow I block.

When everything is smooth and dry, I'll attach the sleeves. Stay tuned for final photos. Oh, and I still need to find the perfect buttons. Maybe I'll hunt them down later today. I hope this encourages anyone who makes a mistake to take the plunge and fix it. And frogging isn't the only way.I still can't believe I did this. Stay tuned for the finished photos here and on ravelry. And again, Thank You, Norah!!!!