Sometimes, you just have to walk away

I have this hat pattern. It's a pretty hat, and lots of people have knitted it. I very much like this hat.

The instructions are not overly complicated but not exactly all that simple. It's got tons of simple cabling in it. I've liked this hat for a while and had gotten it a while ago, but just haven't knitted it.

But apparently, I am completely incapable of reading *single* page of instructions correctly....several times. Apparently, I can't count either. I've had to frog several times, including ripping out the WHOLE thing 2x. *sigh*

• I couldn't count stitches correctly -- cast on 104 -- even with all the stitch markers I used, so when I start the cabling, everything was off by a single stitch. FROG back to the ribbing to reduce the number of stitches.
• Then when I get everything ready, I am unable to count a simple 8 stitches in order to do my cabling. FROG to the ribbing
• Then I couldn't actually *read* the initial ribbing part correctly (k1, p2, k1), which is a 2x2 rib (k2, p2), but you have to make sure you start at the right first stitch (k1) instead of starting with the k2 in order to get the cabling to line up correctly. COMPLETELY FROG in order to start all over again in frustration.
• Then I thought that I'd do a tubular cast-on to make a better edging since I had already frogged completely.. Apparently, despite having done this many many times, I am still unable to count correctly. FROG the cast-on 2x.
• And then, (this might have been an honest assumption, except that I didn't actually *read* the entire pattern first), I thought the "written" directions was a translation of the chart, because it had the same exact number of rounds. INSTEAD, the written directions were for the crown, and I couldn't understand why it was decreasing so fast to make such a small hat. FROG BACK to the ribbing.

Needless to say, I had to walk away from the whole thing for several hours as my frustration level was growing. I had started this hat on the 4th. I should have been finished by now.

le sigh

But, apparently, I am on the "right" track now (knock on wood), although I will be using lifelines at the finish of each repeat, because given the history of this hat, I'm bound to make yet more mistakes.

I guess it's a good thing that this hat is a lovely green for all the frogg'ing I've had to do. There are some days, where I just feel prettier than I do smart. *sigh*

Sometimes, It's Not Meant to Be

There are times, when we push forward with something and no matter HOW hard we try, no matter how much effort we put into it, it's just not meant to be, but you try anyways?

Take Noro yarn, for instance:



I like it. I love the colorway, and I like the yarn. I've even made myself a scarf with another colorway that's just warm as can be. I looked at projects with Noro yarn and they look great.

However, I'm not sure about the knitting-up part. It's a bit scratchy and eats the moisture from my hands. It's not exactly fun to to knit.

So, it's going to be placed in 'time-out' and hibernate a little bit until I decide what to do with it. I'm not wholly sure I want to frog it (as it does knit up prettily), but I might want to use another yarn to finish up the body.

Coming out of Hibernation and into the Frog Pool

This year, I thought to finish off some of my FOs from last year. One UFO was a flat-knit seamed cardigan out of alpaca that I started back in January 2010. I had made all of the body pieces, and just needed to finish the sleeves.

So, I blocked all of the body pieces, and started in on the sleeves in-the-round. I was good and went on Ravelry to check out all of the user found errors and fixes that they made.

After blocking, I seamed the body pieces together and put on the first sleeve. Then I tried it on....

Only to find that it doesn't fit. Despite blocking to the prescribed size, the shoulder cap/shoulder seam doesn't lie where it's supposed to lie and it fits all wonky. I'm very disappointed, but not surprised.

This was one of the first sweaters I attempted to knit, and unbeknownst to me, the pattern had all sorts of issues found by other Ravelry users. Many did their own modifications to make it fit, but I hadn't done that for the body as I was still new to knitting and didn't know about things like errata, Ravelry user modications/comments, and the ilk. There might also be issues about my own gauge which has changed over the past year since I started knitting it....plus I don't think the alpaca was a good choice yarn for me to use for one of my first sweaters.

I'm afraid this one is coming right out of hibernation and into the frog pool. The alpaca is very lovely, and I will have to pick out all of the seams and frog to salvage the oh-so-lovely yarn ...which is going to be a chore in of itself.

I still love how the sweater looks, and will have to make it much later with different yarn and after resizing it to fit ME.

Frog

I started a new sweater (Cerisara by Bonne Marie Burns)  last week, And I finished up the lace portion of the back and started in on the next band, when I realized I was making the HUGE size sweater.

See, Bonne's Marie's patterns are awesome but are slightly smaller than what I would think of as "my size", so I have to go one size up. For her last two sweaters I've made, they fit well, but I would have liked to have more *ease* so I really should have made the next size up.

However, when I was looking at THIS pattern, I didn't see that she steps up her increments by FOUR instead of TWO (like other patterns)

So her other patterns read sizes as: 32, 34, 36....
This one reads her sizes: 34, 38, 42.....

I'm used to just looking at the THIRD sizing in for her patterns instead of, well, you know, actually READING the pattern. So I started making the 42" instead of the 38".......

I had to rip back 10 inches of lace work....*cry*

AND I just realized the silk / merino that I'm using grows a bit when I actually block & wash, which means that I was actually making THREE sizes bigger than I should have....

In a way, I'm glad to have started ripping, because I now realized I should be making the 34, as this yarn "grows" a little bit, which should put me at a 36".

But....10 inches....

I would have really hated to have
a) run out of yarn
b) make something that would fit someone 3x bigger than me....

But....10 inches.....

Remaking Potential

Some time ago, I had knitted up a project with some of my first handspun. I *loved* the colors & how it knitted up. I thought I had found a good pattern for it (Lacy Backtus). I *liked* the pattern.



When I didn't like how the pattern was going, I thought, "Well, I'll probably love it when it's finished. I can't tell with a half-finished item"

So, I finished the project, and *still* didn't love it. And I thought, "Give it time"

So I waited. I still didn't love it. BUT I still loved the colors & the yarn. I didn't understand why. The lovely knitted item sat unloved and unused.

Later, I made a sister pattern to the Lacy Baktus -- Lacy Karius -- with some other handspun, because I loved the idea of the pattern. Both turned out very differently, and I really *love* how the Lacy Karius looks.



So, last night, I was waiting for something and spotted the Lacy Baktus I had made, I grabbed it and started to frog the finished project so I could reclaim the lovely lovely yarn I had made. I felt a deep immense sigh of relief when the ball of yarn was neatly wound.

Now, it has the potential to be something else. And I have the pleasure of knitting with it again.