The Thing I Hate About Knitting

I remember when I first started knitting. I was 6 years old, and Grammy and My Mom taught me. But I was left handed, trying to knit their right handed way. Actually, though, the handedness thing did not deter me. What caused me to put away the needles for 36 years was twofold: 1) all there was to knit with at the time was ugly acryllic Redheart; and 2) everything I made turned out ugly. I would make an ill-fated mistake, not know how to fix it and rip the project out in frustration even before anyone could rescue my work. So I stopped knitting for the same reason I stopped sewing: the projects were long and hard and turned out fugly.

Now, since restarting the knitting hobby 4 years ago, I sometimes make projects that I regret. Usually it's more a result of my choosing a project that doesn't look good on me (the green puke-colored tank top made from sale yarn . . . it was sale yarn for a reason!), or that I just don't ever wear or use (i.e. the countless scarves in my closet). Oh, and don't forget the collection of felted bags I've made and seldom carry.

Fortunately, though still not a prolific knitter, I am usually satisfied, sometimes VERY satisfied with my knitted results. Best case: my recent Forest Canopy Shawl I recently completed in mid-May. It took about 6 weeks or so to knit, but I was deliriously happy with the results.

But since then, I've been working on a lace sweater that I hoped to wear to Stitches in early August. I've been knitting on it for a month. And I finally completed the back last night. That's all I've done - a back of a sweater in a month. Guess what? I compared it to photo in the pattern book today, and it's not right at all - the top part of the thing is wrong. There are supposed to be little flame-like points coming up off the cables and drifting into the reverse stockinette upper back. Instead, mine are weird fireworks-like offshoots that look like firecrackers that fizzled. Plus, I think I'm going to run out of yarn early, even though I bought an extra skein and now they are out of that dyelot. Damn. Damn. Damn.

I hate knitting sometimes.

Sweater Problem Update: Sometimes nothing just NOTHING replaces the help of an objective set of expert eyes to catch what you are doing wrong. I went over to the Studio Thursday night after work and the Dr. Knitting Fix It (Cindy Craig of the Sutdio) helped me figure out where I'd gone wrong. Luckily, I'd installed lifelines along the way, so we were able to rip back - had to rip 1/3 of the back to fix it, but the good news is IT IS FIXED AND BACK ON TRACK! Yay!