Splice Splice Baby

You would NOT believe what I did this evening. There are a multitude of sins one can commit as a knitter -- inadvertently dropping stitches, not getting all of your yarn for a project from the same dye lot, not checking (and re-checking) gauge, etc. But tonight, I committed the gravest sin of all. I cut my knitting.

I was sewing on a button, using some plies of the yarn I made the sweater with, and after creating the shank behind the button and drawing the yarn through to the back for a final knot, I got a snag. No problem, I thought -- I'll just snip it off. Did I cut the yarn at the front of the button to ensure that I was cutting the right strand? No. I decided to cut through what I assumed was part of the button strand at the back. But I didn't cut the button yarn. I cut the sweater itself. Geez.

I didn't panic, though. I went to my Knit Fix book and looked for a solution. Apparently the author never considered that anyone would be as boneheaded as I, and there was no help. So I took a few deep breaths and told myself not to panic. After looking and thinking for a while, I realized that I could just slowly back the cut pieces out of their stitches as I followed them through with a new strand of yarn until I had long enough loose ends to weave in at the back. I think this is darning, basically. It seems to have worked.

The problem was in the long knit column that you can see running vertically just to the left of center in the photo. The one stitch near the center that has the wonky tension -- that's the spot. But that's where the button goes, so it won't show. And I'm pretty sure with all the woven in parts behind it, that it will remain stable. I need to believe this, so don't tell me otherwise.

So it's back to the button sewing -- hopefully with a bit more patience and surely with more experience. After that, I'll have left to do is the pockets.