So I just spent the last half hour frogging three inches of knitting. Although this may not sound like a great feat, you might reconsider that position when I tell you that it was about 140 yards worth and 6004 stitches. Yes, I just had to frog an entire ribbing of a sweater. The stitches got so hopelessly twisted that there was no saving it. It is strange that I do not find myself upset when I have to frog things, or even when I have to start things over in general. I remember when I used to take private art lessons, my teacher would sometimes advise me to go back into the piece and recreate a certain technique that I had already created on another part of the work. Daunting as recreation is, I always said, "If I did it once, I can do it again." With this in mind I have faced many starts and stops with a strange sense of patience, especially in knitting. I find that the aspect of frogging is far more vexing than actually making the decision to do it. In the case of this work, I came to a couple realizations that I would not have discovered had this initial error not occurred.1. Even though this sweater is a massive project, I was able to keep up with directions and maintain the correct stitch count. I have a big problem with phantom stitches when I do large projects. However, I am still very happy that after the increasing my stitch count continued to be correct even with the daunting number (394 at that point)
2. With the work off the needle, I was able to see its actual size. I am making this sweater for a man and I was a little worried about sizing issues due to the fact that he is a big guy and my gauge is, yet again, a little wonky. As I was knitting I was constantly worrying that it would be too small. When I took it off I was able to compare its true size with a sweatshirt I had on hand. The sweater will prove to fit him the way it is supposed to, which is looser than fitted. I am extremely excited now because I know for sure that I am on the right size track.
I will cast on again. I will knit the ribbing correctly this time. I will recreate the beautiful stitches and the right number of them. If I did it once, I can do it again.
2 comments:
Are you knitting this for Bear? Is that why you were evasive? No wonder it got twisted...you know it's not lucky! Which is probably why you were evasive...
For your information, it is for Bear and the main reason I was being evasive was not at all related to this superstitious nonsense. My main reason was that he might potentially read the blog before I have a chance to finish it and I did not want to ruin the surprise completely. I know many things are unlucky, but that is why I just pray with every stitch. God carma overrules curses any day!
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