Reparo!

No, I'm not channeling my inner Harry Potter. But, I swear, the Internets can act like a magic wand for us knitters.

First things first. A photo of December 1, 2006:

And of photo of December 1, 2007:

If memory serves, we got some 8-10 inches of snowfall on 12/1 last year. This year, we ended up with just a few, with a thin coating of ice on top. But, heck, snow is snow and I'll take whatever Mother Nature gives me.

Now, on the magic of the Internets and how Ewe Little Dickens apparently angered, and then made peace with, the knitting gods.

I've been making slowish progress on the High Neck Cable now that the sleeves are on the body as there are over 250 stitches on a round before the neck decreasing kicks in. Last night, right before I retired to bed, I made the extremely sad realization that one of my cables, some 18 rows below, was twisted in the wrong direction. Since there are only 3 ropes of cables and smack dab in the front of the sweater, there was no hiding it. And, worst of all, I knew it was there...it's a wonder I even got to sleep last night knowing this mistake was just sitting there, taunting me. Too tired and exasperated to deal with it, I decided to leave it until this morning when my fresh fingers and brain could re-evaluate the situation.

With a vague sense of dread, I woke early. I was prepared to rip back a good 3" of knitting (which, given that this is knit in the round with the sleeves attached is a lot!) and it would be a bit tricky as there are 8 decreases positioned ever-so-carefully on each RS row. But, maybe..just maybe, I was too tired last night to get a good look at the cable and maybe, just maybe it wasn't really twisting the wrong way?

Nope. It was going the wrong way. Damn.

Well, there's got to be a way to fix it and the worst that could happen, again, was my original plan of action of spending my precious pre-dawn knitting time at the ol' Frog Pond. So, I proceeded to whip out the Knitter's Magic Wand (aka the Internet) and search for "fixing cables" and there was a glimmer of hope.

I didn't snap a photo of my wrongly twisted cable, but - thanks to the Yarn Harlot - here's a shot of what it sorta looked like:

Now, the trick is to purposely drop just the cable stitches down to where the cable goes awry, re-twist in the proper direction and then pick up each of the stitches all the way up. In theory, this is pretty straightforward...putzy, to be sure, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it for the timid knitter. But, hey, I'm a professional, right? I can do this (I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...)

The pattern calls for a 6-stitch cable with the first three held to the back every 6 rows. But, in my sorry case, 18 rows below I had for some bizarre reason decided to mix things up and hold those first 3 stitches to the front. So, braced on very early a.m. courage (we're talking 3:30 am here), down those stitches went. Witness Cable Carnage:

Here's the front of my lovely sweater with the offending stitches unmercifully destroyed [insert evil laughter here].

I re-twisted the stitches in the proper direction and proceed to pick up the six stitches up through 18 rows. Tricky thing was repeating the cable every 6 rows. I had one glitch of an attempt, just about ready to say, "heck with it...I'll just rip it", but I took a slug of the Elixir of Life (coffee) and gave it another, steadily patient go.

Well, wha'd'ya know? FIXED!

Thank you, Yarn Harlot and the Internets. You rock my world! To read her most amusing and complete explanation on how to do this, visit her archive here.

In the 2 hours I had to knit before proceeding to the gym this morning, I only knit 4 rows. But, I salvaged a whole day's worth of knitting.

In other news, the Diamond Patch mittens are complete and wearable. After a little scare yesterday thinking that I actually made two of the same hand (the pattern is just a wee bit ambiguous on exactly where to place the thumb. And that's an understatement if I ever heard one), they work: