Knit One, Twisted Purl Two

  This is a project from way back in the day.  I'm pretty sure most people have heard the Knit One, Purl Two saying before.  I used to think it was just funny, but then I tried it as a stitch pattern.  I then used it a whole lot.
  However, this was started so long ago I didn't know some of the awesome stuff I do now.  Like how to weave in the ends nicely, this has them cut short and knotted together.  I also didn't seem to remember how to wrap the yarn when purling correctly.  All the purl stitches were twisted and I know I definitely didn't know that you could purl through the back of the loop.
  It still had the yellow, since I had been starting a yellow section, and I may have given the blue away with my last yarn donation.  I also knew that purling by wrapping the yarn in the wrong direction would drive me crazy if I had to do it for too long.  Luckily with the last yellow section, it would be long enough for a cowl.

  This is a funny story.  My mom saw an ad for Tuesday Morning for these gradient yarn kits.  They were only $4.99 (before tax) for each one.  Yes, they are small skeins, but all the work of having to pick out all the colors is already done, and unlike stash diving, they are also guaranteed to all be the same weight of yarn.  Since they were small skeins and so inexpensive, I may have gone overboard a bit.  In my defence, you would probably need more than one skein if you were to try and make a shawl or sweater.  I made quite a dent in their display, but I was nice enough to leave some on the shelf.
  The lady in line in front of me seemed impressed by the price but said she would have no idea what to do with it.  The lady behind me, who had been looking at one of the brown kits, said that she would know what to do with it, but didn't have the time.  I don't know her or how much yarn she has, but I know I always find time.  Time in the car when you aren't driving, riding the bus, waiting on hold with customer service, while waiting for your inbox to refresh, when waiting for something to finish baking in the oven for dinner, the list just goes on.

  Since I knew that I wasn't going to be using those kits any time soon, I put them in bins and put them into the craft organizing room.  The room is slowly coming together.  The guest room is still a huge mess, but I am starting to chip away at that as well.
  While going through a bag of what looked like a bunch of small balls of yarn, I found this guy.  No needles or life-line in sight.  There never is with things that get donated.

  From how crinkled the yarn is, I can imagine that they made a mistake and were trying to go back and fix it.  I'm not sure what happened but something made them give up on this pretty shawl.
  Some things you may not be able to easily see in the pictures are that every other row is made up of twisted stitches.  I'll have to figure out if those are from the knit row or the purl row.  I'm hoping for the knit row because I find it a lot easier to knit through the back loop than to either purl through the back loop or to wrap the yarn in the wrong direction.
  The middle of the shawl and one side are on a more previous row than the other side.  This won't be too hard to fix because I will just take the farther side back until everyone is on the same row.  I might also take it back one more row since some of the stitches that I picked up were also not on the same row, but I will decide that once I get there.
  In my knitting classes I have had people ask how to pick up dropped stitches.  I always tell them the things I do when I have to do it.  Just grab those loops and put them on a needle, any needle, though a smaller needle means you are less likely to tug too much and pull its neighbor out and down a row.  It also doesn't matter if you are picking them all up in the same direction or if they are twisted.  All those things can by fixed later when you go back to them, either to work the next row, or just to make sure you got them all.  I also try to make sure I get all the yarn from each stitch, but if I happen to split the yarn, I figure that as long as I got most of it, it is good enough for now and that I can also fix that when I go back and get to it.
  Once I think I have most of them on there I will take more time and follow along the row and see if I missed any.  Once I have them on then it is a lot easier to assess what needs to be done.  Take out a row, re-knit a few stitches so everyone is on the same row, untwist some stitches, or pick up the last fibers of a stitch you split.  There are probably some other things that may need to be done, but those are the usual.
  I also tell people to not panic, the stitches can smell your fear.