dropped the wrap stitch in a short row :/

[spiceoflife]

Hi all
I am knitting in the round for the first time using a great pattern for newborn soakers. It starts in k1 p1 rib on needles 4 sizes smaller than gauge. Then, before I move up to the next size needles (2 sizes smaller than gauge), I am invited to insert a single 'short row'. So I looked all this up on knittinghelp.com and thought I managed to do the 'short row with wrap' successfully in the right spot. I started the next full row on the new needles following the *k3 p1 k1 p1 k1 p1* pattern but when I got to the second wrapped stitch - which was to be purled - I somehow dropped it and now I don't know how to recover!
Any experience or ideas out there? I won't get to my local wool/knitting shop till at least Wednesday and it's just bothering me

[jackrose]

Sorry, I don't know how to help with that one. I find short rows need a bit of concentration and although I can do them if I follow instructions, i have never tried to go back and undo or try to fix up a mistake.

Does it need to be picked up? Sometimes with a wrap like that it is more about the way the increase/decrease pattern looks on the finished garment. Maybe you could try inserting a lifeline and continue knitting on and then if you have mucked up you can easily rip back to where you were. Sort of a hedge your bets type thing.

Mind you, I am not that experienced in short rows and may be off the mark. I tend to follow patterns for short rows to the letter because I don't fully 'understand' or 'see' the pattern. In other knitting I have a bit more of a feel for why and how you do certain things so could be of more help.

[spiceoflife]

I tend to follow patterns for short rows to the letter because I don't fully 'understand' or 'see' the pattern.

This! This is part of my difficulty.
I've just done it again, dropped the wrap stitch Back to the wool shop for me!
jr - tell me more about 'lifelines' and how that makes going back easier?

[~Raven~]

I saw an instruction video a long time ago that said to put a safety pin around the wrap. Perhaps if you do that you will have an easier time picking it up!
I almost always mess up my short rows when I do them. I got quite good at embroidering little critters over the holes

[spiceoflife]

Excellent ideas, Raven!!

[jackrose]

A lifeline is where you thread a piece of cotton or dental floss into the stitches of a row of knitting so that it you can safely rip out knitting, back to the lifeline row and that cotton holds the live stitches so that you can pick them up more easily. When I am doing complicated work I tend to do a lifeline every now and again so that I can confidently go ahead knowing that if I need to go back it is easy.

The way I work a lifeline in is very straightforward. I knit with circular needles with inter-changable points and they have a little tiny hole near the connector where you place a 'key' to tighten them in place. The hole provides a perfect 'eye' to thread a lifeline through so that once it is threaded in the knitting needle, it just sits in each loop of knitting in a row while each stitch is made. At the end of the row I take it out of the knitting needle eye and presto - lifeline. If you use regular needles, you may have to thread a lifeline into a row after you have knitted it with a regular sewing needle.

There is heaps about it on google if you try: "lifeline knitting" in the search box.

[spiceoflife]

jackrose, thank you so much for your helpful suggestions! This is my first knitting project in about 15 years lol so I really appreciate all the experience.