A faster, easier way to tink

Unraveling, tinking, ripping-out, frogging*: all names for un-knitting finished fabric. Methods range from slow-but-sure to fast-and-bold. Today's post shows a combo method--fast, yet sure.

BACKGROUND:
At the slow end of unraveling, there is tinking. "Tink" ("knit" spelled backwards) means working backwards down the row to transfer each stitch from needle to needle, pulling the running yarn out of each stitch in turn.  Slow but sure, yes, but very dull.

At the bold end is sliding the work off the needles, yanking out arms-lengths of yarn until the target row is reached, then picking bare naked loops onto a needle. Upside: speed. Downside: grabbing untethered loops without starting ladders, unknitting nearby stitches, or splitting plies.

COMBO METHOD
It is possible to slide the work off the needles, yank out yarn with abandon, yet slow down as you near the target row and catch the underlying loops perfectly: no ply-splitting. Here's how.

• Slide the work off the needles
• Unravel by pulling out yarn, as fast as you like
• STOP one (or if cautious, two) rows short of the target row.
• take a very thin knitting needle in your active (knitting) hand, and unravel the last row(s) as shown in the below you-tube video. 

Note you ARE splitting the plies of the EXISTING stitch (the one you're removing). Yet, once that stitch has been pulled out, the underlying stitch (the one you want on the needle) is unsplit. If you take care to set the stitches on the needle right arm forward, the stitches will not be mis-mounted.

Sometimes a stitch ends up mis-mounted (left arm forward) because it's just easier to pick up that way. For a single mis-mounted stitch, slip it back and forth until it lands on the holding needle correctly. For batch correction, leave the mis-mounts, then, before re-knitting the target row, slide your needles through the work again, changing orientation as you encounter each mis-mount. Alternatively, ignore mis-mounts until you come to knit them, then straighten out each as-you-go by inserting the working needle through the back loop, shown here (second and third illustrations).

Using a very thin needle speeds pickup. Furthermore, no need to slide the stitches onto the original size needle to re-knit. You can knit right off the thin needle. See, the stitches on the thin needle were originally formed over a needle of the correct size: the thin needle is simply a holder.  As long as the new row is worked with a correct size needle, no fabric distortion results. This post explains why.

CAVEATS:  

--As neat as this trick is, I wouldn't do it on lace, or anything knit in silk.

--If the pulled-out yarn is strongly set in its ways, consider de-kinking with a quick shot of steam before re-knitting. 

--TK

*"Frogging" = frogs say "ribbit-ribbit," sounds like "rip-it, rip-it."