Tag Archives: mistakes

Choices 2020

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I’ve got a dilemma.

It’s a dilemma of my own creation, because I insisted on making a sweater without actually having a plan.  I should have had a plan.

I really should have had a plan.

Now I have… this:IMG_2909

Possibly the world’s least-flattering sweater.

Ignore the sleeve situation for a second, and let me walk you through what happened.

My original thought was to knit up a stash-busting sweater using the lace-weight alpaca that I’ve had in my stash for literal years.  I love all the colors, but haven’t had the time/energy for lace since… the early 2000s.  I actually knit up a swatch with the yarn held triple, and it seemed like it was going to work.  The first plan was to make a cropped, over-sized sweater, in the vein of the Love Note.  Super cute and trendy.

Well, I got carried away (a combination of quarantine blues and some good Netflix shows), and before I knew it, I had a hip-length sweater.  Not what I planned, but hey, that’s ok.

I tried it on.  It fit… well enough.  Even though I did a swatch, I forgot to factor in the inherent drapiness of alpaca.  It’s really kind of shapeless and droopy.  Don’t get me wrong… it’s real comfortable and soft, but not the most flattering thing ever.

It was time to tackle the sleeves.  My first thought was to just make it into a T-shirt- something trendy and cute, and something I could wear sooner than later with summer on the way.  I threw a quick short sleeve on the sweater.  I tried it on…

Y’all.  It was so wide across the shoulders (WAY too many raglan increases), that the armpit hits just a couple inches above my elbow.  It looks OK enough if I keep my arms down, but if I lift them up, I get a weird bat-wing look (and not in a good way).

So, I decide to make the other sleeve long.  I use my usual long sleeve formula,  and make it up in a weekend.

I’ve got big hopes.  I try it on.  Ugh.

It’s… fine, but way baggier than I hoped.  If I really want the sweater to be how I’m now imagining it, I have to rip it all the way back past the armpits and try again, and I’m just not feeling that now.

So, I’m asking you:  What should I do?

Long sleeve? Short sleeve?  Re-knit the long sleeve so it’s narrower?  Give up and walk around with one long sleeve like a crazy person?  Give up entirely?

IMG_2921

(Don’t mind my dog and my kid barking at the cars driving by…  It was a day.)

Have you ever gotten almost to the end of a project, just to realize you did it all wrong?

Math… After Dark

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When I start a project, I like to finish it.

And sometimes, when I’m working on something particularly tricky, I want to finish it right now.  Which can lead to mistakes.  Especially when I get stuck on a bit of particularly tricky math.

Which has led me to make a rule for myself:

No math after dark.

I’ve burned myself too many times with this.  I start working on a particularly tricky part of a pattern, or find a mistake, then next thing I know, I’ve deleted and re-jiggered a weeks’ work in an evening.

And invariably, there ends up being some massive mistake in my “fix” that takes three days to re-fix.

(When I worked in an office, I had a similar rule- no mass emails after 4:00, especially on Fridays.  The few really big email mistakes I made always happened when I tried to send out emails right before leaving work.  Like when I accidentally sent invitations to a group of about 50 “no” applicants to interview with our company.  Whoops!)

I’ve been working on a fairly complicated design lately, and I’m 90% of the way there- I just have a few more tweaks (and a little ripping out and re-knitting) before I’m finished.  I almost finished yesterday, but felt myself starting to get carried away last night (and the growing urge to delete big swaths of data that I was sure were wrong).

But, this morning the sun’s shining (as much as it ever does in Seattle at this time of year), I’ve got my fully-caffeinated coffee and I’m ready to tackle some more math.

Wish me luck!

OK, Maybe You Should Have Stopped Me

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The downside of my Finish-The-Project-Or-Die-Trying mania is that sometimes everything gets a little out of hand.  Point in case, last night:

9:00 – I sit down with a glass of wine, an episode of Castle, and the determination to finish one button band before I go to bed.  I cast on, and start knitting.

9:30 – I reach the button hole row, and read over my pattern (poorly, as it turns out).  I go ahead and make all my button holes.

9:35 – I make it to the end of the button hole row, and I realize that I didn’t count correctly, and as a result, I don’t have enough space for all the buttons that I wanted to add.  I tink back the row.  Not to worry.  It’s just a small setback.

9:45 – I begin the row again, this time making sure that I do the right thing.  (But, of course, I still don’t actually re-read the pattern.  Because I am stubborn and dumb.)

9:50 – I finish the row, and realize I counted my stitches wrong (again), but this time in a different way.

9:55 – I pout and pour myself another glass of wine.

10:00 – I swear under my breath, and tink back the row again.

10:10 – I knit the row one more time, being extra-special 100% sure that I do the right thing.

10:15 – I finish the row and count that I have the right number of button holes.  I do a little happy dance and keep knitting.

10:45 – I sit back, almost ready to bind off the button band, and check over my work.  The button holes are nicely spaced across the whole button band, but something looks a little off, a little wonky.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASee that button hole?  (It’s kind of hard to see in the photo, sorry.)  See how it’s kind of halfway up the little piece of ribbing?  I think to myself, “Huh, shouldn’t the button holes be centered in the purl sections of the ribbing?  That’s a weird way to design a pattern.  Oh well.”

10:50 – I start getting ready to bind off, but the off-kilter button holes are still bugging me.  I get out my computer and start poking around on Ravelry.  The other people who’ve made this sweater don’t have weird off-kilter button holes.  I am perplexed and a little frustrated.

11:00 – I actually re-read the pattern again, and I realize that I’ve made a huge mistake.  What I thought was a typo in the pattern (that I half read two hours earlier) was actually not a mistake at all.  I realize that I am stupid and arrogant for not really reading the directions.

11:10 – I consider ripping out the button band back to the holes, swear a little bit, and have a pity party for myself.

11:20 – I cry uncle, and give up for the night.  I’ll re-do the band in the morning, when I’m less blinded by stupidity and frustration.  Ugh.