Control+Alt+Delete

With all the computer hassles we've dealt with lately, my first course of action has always been the ole' reliable Control+Alt+Delete. This term is also known in the PC world as the "three-finger salute". We often resort to these three keys with the hopes of interrupting a malfunctioning computer program. You hope that this will be the quick fix that will get you back on track. Some times it works, you press the magic three keys, reboot and voila! Sometimes, it's much, much more serious..... like a malfunctioning motherboard.

Don't you wish more things had a Control+Alt+Delete function. It would be nice if my car had this feature. Or if I had a headache, I could give myself the three finger salute and suddenly feel better. There are so many times that I wished there was a chance for a fresh start, a "do-over" or a quick, painless "delete".

I was knitting my Cocoon sleeve the other day and I noticed a series of wonky stitches about 3 inches down below. I couldn't tell you what happened, but it looked bad and I wanted them to disappear. Could I not "edit", "cut" or "paste", with a couple of keystrokes and have the wonky row go away like a typo on a document? Wasn't there a magic tool, needle or "stitchcheck" that would detect wonky stitches and fix them?

Well, Control+Alt+Delete does not apply to my knitting needles, so I tinked (ripped out-it's knit spelled backwards) the offending stitches. My knitting also does not have a "save" function, so I had no clue as to where I was in the pattern. I had to keep ripping until my exact location could be found...and that was on row #4, just after the ribbing. I went from Row 47 to Row 4 in just seconds. It was kind of like the "delete" function that I'm quite fond of.

There is no magic knitting program on the computer, and Steve, Steve, Steve, Not Steve and Bill can not fix this setback. They are not knitters (yet) and I'm glad. There is nothing as soothing to me as a lovely yarn gliding over and around my knitting needles. I look forward to re-knitting the sleeve and the rest of the Sweater.

You want your computer to be fast and obedient. Can you imagine having to send all 555 eNews-emails to our mailing list by hand?

Some things are best accomplished the slow and old fashioned way. Knitting is one of those things. Sometimes you just knit wonky and you have to go back a few rows in order to move forward.