How to fix lace mistakes

I have been knitting outdoors boy scout camping in the gorgeous Texas Hill Country and drinking earl grey tea from my charity store enamel tea cup and saucer. It has been a very busy week and I really needed it. Ah bliss!

 

 

 

I am really enjoying this pattern Nurmilintu by Heidi Alander. It's made up of alternating sections of garter stitch and charted lace. The yarn feels good and the tones are pleasing. It's Cascade Heritage 150 Paints - sale yarn purchased in the summer in Yarn Durango, Colorado.
 

I thought I could manage the lace sections without stitch markers. I'll just wing it I thought. I can do it. I often go without a stitch marker in crochet, the one that you usually put in at the beginning of a row when working in the round. I like a little challenge.

 

However, I messed up A LOT. So in went the stitch markers. And then even with these little handy guides sitting on my needles at 9 stitch pattern repeat intervals I messed up. I'd forget a yarn over or not make a note of my row when I put my work down. And then I'd have to go back. But as you may well know, taking back a lace pattern is not straightforward!

 

I worked out that it's easier to take back a little section between stitch markers, turning the work to it's wrong side to see the stitches more clearly. But there must be online guidance for this. Ta dah - I just found an amazing resource on The Twist Collective A knitter's guide to fixing mistakes. Part 1 is Minor Blunders with a whole load of useful info. Part 2 is Average Gaffes dealing with mistakes in cable and colorwork.

And then I found an excellent video on the Craftsy blog with Laura Nelkin How to fix lace knitting mistakes showing how to make a missing yarn over and work a forgotten decrease on the next row.

 

Obviously the easiest way to fix a mistake is not to make it in the first place and here is a great article from Poststitchbox with five ways to count your rows when knitting. I'm a fan of pink highlighter tape personally. What's your preferred method of keeping track?