Complex Cable Surgery

I realised yesterday that I'd crossed a cable the wrong way about four rows back. To rip back four rows would mean ripping out my 92 stitch sleeve. Wasn't going to happen. So I dropped back just the stitches involved to fix them. I do this quite a bit in lace and knit/ purl patterns, but I'd never done it in cables before. And while there's plenty of great advice about fixing cables by dropping back the stitches (or cutting and kitchener stitching, or overstitching), the illustrations only ever deal with very simple cables. My mess has other cables hanging about, other crosses to make before I got back to the top, and one pair of stitches were knit on the right side while the others were purl on the right side. It took a while to work out what I was looking at.
My cable surgery took an hour or so, I think. At one point seven needles were involved. Don't you love that despite my awkward situation I still grabbed the camera? I fixed it all up so it looked fine at the front, but there were a couple of weird loops at the back that concerned me, so they all got dropped again. That lengthened the process a little. And a couple of the knit stitches are still 'open' (you know, the oppposite of twisted), but I'm zen with that, all things considered.

I also got another good mail day. Duckcloth/ Kristen Doran fabric. Nicely packaged, and I like that the care instructions were included (machine washable, yeah!).


The fabric is actually a darker brown than this. I'd almost call the colour donkey, or light cocoa. The print is that slightly rubbery kind that sits above the fabric, you know? The detail is very crisp though. The fabric is interior decorating weight - cushion cover or tote bag weight. It's got a kind of sheen to it that I can't quite work out. Different.
I'm thinking it doesn't work quite so well in the living room as I'd hoped (too brown), so I'm thinking the feathers may be part of my placemat/ tablerunner campaign (I'll explain another day); and the flowers maybe will be bag. Because I really like the flowers. And then my Lara Cameron Kawaii (I bought the red) fabric can be the cushion cover (if it isn't too brown as well... hmmm...).