I let the sweater sink slowly to the bottom of my knitting bag. After a couple of days, I lifted it out of the bag and neatened up the now tangled balls of yarn. I resolutely started knitting again. With my Mistake staring me down the whole time. STOP.
Let's step back and see what happened. I had already calculated that one row of the sweater took about 20 minutes to knit. I knit a row. I knit 4 rows. I had to tink back across one of them when I forgot to read my chart from left to right on the purl rows. No problem, I had lots of time that day. We were at an outdoors music festival, the sun was shining with that peculiar oblique golden light of early fall. It was a Perfect Knitting Day. I got an astonishing 12 rows of fair-isle knitting done. I was flying through the rows!
So, what happened? On the ride home, I put my reading glasses on to review the next pattern section. I knit a few stitches. I stopped and absently tried to smooth out the previous pattern section which was a little...bumpy. I shook my head as if to clear it & kept knitting. About half way across the row I had to admit that it was really bumpy, puckered even. Assuring myself that it would block out--or that maybe it was just compressed on the needle, I kept knitting. For a little while. Like, for another row.
Shortly after that, the sweater started inching it's way towards the bottom of my knitting bag. I had some other things to finish up & samples to knit, so it was easy to think I was just taking a little break. I knit a shawl, a pair of socks, a pair of baby socks...& a hat. I looked around and found another pair of socks that were nearly finished and I worked on them.
Fast forward to last week. At knit night I tried to work on the sweater. Then, I showed the sweater to a couple of other knitters. There was consensus. It has to be ripped out. So, I put it back in my bag--and it's still there. I think I'll make another hat.
Next time: LYS talks to some other knitters about mistakes, knitting, mistakes, fixes, & abandoning projects.
Let's step back and see what happened. I had already calculated that one row of the sweater took about 20 minutes to knit. I knit a row. I knit 4 rows. I had to tink back across one of them when I forgot to read my chart from left to right on the purl rows. No problem, I had lots of time that day. We were at an outdoors music festival, the sun was shining with that peculiar oblique golden light of early fall. It was a Perfect Knitting Day. I got an astonishing 12 rows of fair-isle knitting done. I was flying through the rows!
So, what happened? On the ride home, I put my reading glasses on to review the next pattern section. I knit a few stitches. I stopped and absently tried to smooth out the previous pattern section which was a little...bumpy. I shook my head as if to clear it & kept knitting. About half way across the row I had to admit that it was really bumpy, puckered even. Assuring myself that it would block out--or that maybe it was just compressed on the needle, I kept knitting. For a little while. Like, for another row.
Shortly after that, the sweater started inching it's way towards the bottom of my knitting bag. I had some other things to finish up & samples to knit, so it was easy to think I was just taking a little break. I knit a shawl, a pair of socks, a pair of baby socks...& a hat. I looked around and found another pair of socks that were nearly finished and I worked on them.
Fast forward to last week. At knit night I tried to work on the sweater. Then, I showed the sweater to a couple of other knitters. There was consensus. It has to be ripped out. So, I put it back in my bag--and it's still there. I think I'll make another hat.
Next time: LYS talks to some other knitters about mistakes, knitting, mistakes, fixes, & abandoning projects.