Wednesday, January 15, 2014

fix-a-stitch

This weekend I am going to Vogue Knitting Live in NYC with my mom again. I am all kinds of excited. I have a blockbuster lineup of classes and lectures, completely disregarding my advice from last year not to pack so much in. But in addition to lace with Brooke Nico and colorwork with Franklin Habit, how can I resist squeezing a lecture on knitting to flatter by Amy Herzog? Or photography tips by Gale Zucker?

Answer: I can't. So here we go again.

I have started to pack, so I pulled out my one semi-fashionable handbag which I had carried last year to look the NYC part... and discovered the Fix-a-Stitch set I had purchased last year! I had completely forgotten about it.



The Fix-A-Stitch tool is a clever little plastic gizmo in several sizes, better than a crochet hook for repairing certain stitches because, unlike using a crochet hook, you don't have to drop your stitch and pick it up from the other side if you are switching between a knit and purl stitch. You just slide the stitch down to the hook at the other end, and you are in business. The videos on the website do a much better job of explaining.

Best part of all: it is made in the USA. Also, it's an awesome, impossible-to-lose (well, almost impossible) shade of pink.



The discovery was just in time, because I found a glaring error on the front button band of my Downton Abbey knit. Fellow Downton Abbey fans know that this past week's episode was particularly distracting on two counts: (1) the amazing house party costumes, and (2) the horrendously awful plot twist. So it's no surprise that I messed up something as obvious as a garter stitch band. I am going to have to take a closer look at the lace panels to make sure there are no errors lurking there as well.



A few minutes with the fix-a-stitch, dropping each stitch down and weaving it back up properly, and the problem was corrected. Hopefully the vendor will be at VKL again this year. I am going to see if she has the laceweight one as well, because I am already regretting not picking it up now that I remember how useful a tool it can be.

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