Rip It... Rip It Good!

These days I find myself needing to rip back large portions of a knitting project, for one reason or another; and I thought I'd share what I've learned (so you don't have to spend hours untangling an unholy mess of one ply lace weight wool. ugh.)

I'm not even done ripping yet... I'm going all the way back to the armholes!

I use this technique when I'm mid-project, and don't want to rip the whole piece out, just a large enough section that would undoubtedly tangle, were I not to utilize this simple method. In fact, it's just a piece of card stock (letter sized, 8.5"x11"",) rolled into a tube and taped shut. I place a cut on one end to hold the end that's closest to the ball, that's not being ripped, to hold the yarn in place.

Then, I just rip back and wind the loose yarn onto the tube, being careful to pull tight enough to slightly pull the curl out, but not so tight that it actually constricts the tube. I try and start at the end of the tube closest to the ball. I work my way towards the other end of the tube as I go, so when I knit it back together, I can just pull a few loops off the tube at a time. Jeez, I hope that made sense! If you have any questions, or just want to call me wordy - feel free! And wish me luck while you're at it, I still have a ton left to rip out!