After returning from a trip to Toronto a few years back, my husband presented me with this humongous hank of luscious kid mohair. It’s 450 meters of beautifully soft lime green yarn from Fleece Artist. I wound it into this gigantic ball of fluff.
I started knitting a drop stitch shrug from a pattern book called Parisienne by Colinette. It’s the one called Montmartre.
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I was almost half way done when I put it down … a couple of years ago. Here’s part of the sleeve.
I could not figure out where I left off and the pattern is rather convoluted due to the increases. Plus, from where I stopped, I needed to start decreasing in pattern and completely forgot my sequencing, despite my margin notes.
These two smaller yarn balls are the unravelled evidence of my procrastination.
Agujas 
I feel your pain.
Thanks for the support.
Oh, you poor thing! Can you unravel it without ‘hurting’ the yarn and it’s fluff? This is what I have done: I have just started a little baby romper suit from a ancient pattern book (early 1940s). Before I started I have made a table with the following 6 columns: section number, section (ie “leg bands” or “armhole decrease”), rows (how long the section is), stitches on the section (at beginning and end), summary of section (ie “knit the underside of the flap, repeat rows 1 and 2 for the entire section”) and finally: instructions (detailed row instructions, as some people like it).
WHEN I FINISH A SECTION, I put a tiny safety pin in the LAST row of the previous section. So when I leave the project for something else, it is much easier to find my way back to where I had left it off! But even if I don’t have a long pause in the project – it is so easy to count quickly just the rows of the section I am currently working on and track the pattern.
So, then when I started knitting, I had the original instructions and my own pattern and I revised the latter as I went. I think it is such a cute model, I may well produce it for anybody in my circle of friends who is expecting a baby – that’s why I went through the trouble of writing my own pattern.
I will put this on my blog soon and will attach the pdf with the instructions, so you can see how I have structured it all – probably easier to understand looking at it than reading my convoluted description here.
Hang in there!
What a great idea. I should have marked my rows and used stitch markers. I look forward to seeing your post.
Ditto. It’s a pig to frog but at least you can start afresh and with a clear mind and slate. (If I’m not mixing too many metaphors!). It’s gorgeous yarn though. 🙂
The yarn is rather fabulous. I agree that it will be best to start fresh. I doubt I would have been happy with the shrug if I thought there were too many errors in it.
WOW!!! Gorgeous yarn and such a spectacular color. Huge project, but I applaud your courage and perseverance. (oh and my Malabrigo book 3 shawl was made with Fleece artist yarn. Very soft and luxurious.)
I think I became bored with the pattern or probably just got busy that year and forgot about it. There is so much yarn that thankfully I will have plenty left to make something else with it.
Yikes! I hate frogging mohair. It’ll be worth it, though. What a luscious color!
Yes – the mohair is rather tricky. It kinked up in a few places and I had to cut it and throw portions away.
What is frogging? Is it that the yarn is fuzzy? I love the color and hope you can find your way through that pattern, it will be beautiful!
Frogging is the unraveling of a knitted item. It can be completely unraveling it or just a section. It’s called frogging because to take the yarn and “rip it rip it rip it” to undo your knitting. It’s similar to tinking but more so. Hope this helps.
-Cleo
Oh! I get it now, thank you Cleo 🙂
You’re welcome.
Great explanation! Thanks.
I had never heard of this term, either. I love it, rip rip rip… I find it actually really liberating and now I have an imaginary (green) companion, when I go rip rip rip next time! Thanks!
Ok, glad I could help. Happy frogging
I love the color too. I haven’t quite decided if I’m going to try the same pattern again or start fresh with another.
Aw! I that’s such wonderful yarn I hope you can save it. Good luck.
I lost some of it. Mohair is so delicate. But with that much yardage, I will be able to redeploy it to another project.
Oh, it is SO hard to frog mohair. Good for you, going ahead instead of just letting it lie there and go to waste! What a beautiful color – and once again, your photos are gorgeous!
Thank you. I also love the color. It is hard because the mohair is so fine.
Q – I have a scarf which is in the same position! Not sure where I stopped.
I put off frogging the piece for a long time.
Q – So annoying. Mine is a beaded scarf so the “extra” effort went into it. I might count the ridges on the end to see if I can figure out how many rows I’ve knit.
LOL! I have a couple projects like that too…
Ah well. If WIPs were all meant to be FO’s, we’ve never have half the knitting war stories to tell. Upward and onward!
Thanks! I knew my knitting friends would understand.
I have had the same problem with some mohair. The tangled evidence is in a bag on the stairs. In limbo!
Mine was in limbo for months.
I was expecting to see frog fasteners (as in Chinese garments). This has been a revelation language-wise, but I certainly know that snarly feeling. Except for the love of the yarn, the great temptation is to set it aside forEVER. I also enjoyed Cleo14’s ripit ripit explanation of the name!
I thought it was a funny term when I first heard it. I kept thinking it was an acronym for something!
I have a beautiful teal/green cardigan I started about 3 years ago. I picked it up before Christmas and was able to figure out where I was. I knitted for awhile and then had to put it away again due to MANY Christmas projects. It is so awful when you can’t figure out where you were.
I hope you figure it out.. for me, I would probably end up taking it out and starting over.. The yarn is too beautiful to let it sit!
Yes, I agree, the yarn is so beautiful. I did rip it out – even had to throw a bit out. But I still have a big fluffy ball of lime green mohair for another day.