I’m hoping that now that the full moon has passed that I can sleep a little better and a little longer. Living close to the land, we seem to go to bed and wake up with the sun. We don’t have a lot of curtains and blinds and those that we do have aren’t usually closed. So … the sunrise is at around 6:30am and we are almost always up before that. The moon last night and tonight was absolutely gorgeous, though.
I have another FO! I finished my Hermione’s Everyday Socks tonight. I stayed up late (it’s after 9pm, all!) I loved this pattern. I loved knitting a different sock pattern (but I do still adore the Yankee Knitter pattern) and I loved knitting a different heel pattern. I did make a little mistake on the first heel – I lost my rhythm for a few rows but I let it go – but the second sock has a perfect heel. I think I’m going to have to wear these socks tomorrow and see how my feet like the texture of the socks.
The first picture is the textured leg. This is a simple four round pattern that you can memorize without any issues. I promise. The heel is a slip stitch heel but the slipped stitches aren’t stacked and so there’s some extra thickness where you need it BUT it’s not as visible as the more traditional slip stitch heel flap.
A year or so ago, I realized that I had filled my sock drawer with hand knit socks. But most of my socks were patterned and there were no plain ones. (Ha! Ha! Plain! There’s nothing plain about even a solid color pair of hand knit socks.) I have now made three pairs of solid color socks for myself and two of them are in this yarn. I really like the CoopKnits Sock Yeah! yarn. It’s a 75/35 merino/nylon blend in a fingering weight. I bought this yarn in a collection when I invested in learning more about knitting with A Year of Techniques. I’ve written about it here before. It was a great investment and I loved trying yarns that I wouldn’t have easy access to here in Maine. Since the yarns all came from the UK, they were different than most that we have at MY LYS.
These socks will be a good addition to my sock drawer and I hope that I love them as much as I love the vanilla socks that I made in the light gray colorway. I’m going to cast on another pair of socks tomorrow to take with us on our travels to my nephew’s wedding this week. They’re so easy to travel with. I just have to decide which pattern I am going to try. Maybe the Crazy Sock Lady’s pattern? Not sure which one … yet!
It’s late so I’m signing off but no more knitting tonight!
We are having some snow again today and we had some ice on Thursday. It’s winter in Maine and I have to say that I am a happy girl. I love the winter and I love the snow. I feel like the media has been really good at scaring the pants off of us and now we are told to stay home even at times when the driving isn’t bad. I headed out to work on Thursday after we got a quarter inch of ice and I had no trouble getting out of our driveway or getting to the store … and as my car slipped by the back door (ha! ha!) I decided that I’d park out front where nobody would have such a good opportunity to slip down the hill and into my car. I’m so grateful for my cleat-thingys that keep me upright on ice.
I’ve just finished sewing the perfect buttons on my Nancy’s Vest. It is finished. I wore it to work today buttonless and I love the way it fits. I also love the weight of the yarn and it’s soft and just enough gray and brown all at the same time.
So, now I have two vests … and there are going to be more of them in my future.
I pulled my sleeve out of my Women’s Favorite Genser again. In its first iteration, the sleeve decreases were too far apart and the sleeve would have been too long and the stitch count off for the colorwork before the cuff ribbing. On the second iteration, I realized that the increases were too close together which made the sleeve too narrow too soon. Now on my third try, I’m decreasing “in the middle” of the other two and I think it’s looking good. Cross your fingers.
I’m working on my Cooked Lobstah socks and my Double Thick Hat. They’re both easy patterns that I can nearly knit with my eyes closed. I may have mentioned that I hate myself in hats. The only ones that I wear are saggy baggy hats that fall down over my eyes. I only wear them if I have to go out with wet hair in the winter or if I am spending time outside like when I clean off my car or help shovel. But that’s the long way of saying that even though I am making this hat for me, I may decide that I hate it. AND I hope I don’t hate it but it’s more than possible. BUT I love the yarn! I’m knitting with Juniper Moon Farm’s Herriot Fine. I had two hanks of it in my stash, they were a gift from our KFI salesman at the store. He always sent something for “the girls”. (ha! ha!) Herriot Fine is absolutely gorgeous to work with. It’s soft and comes in lots of pretty colors. I have a blue and a creamy oatmeal color. Not thrilling colors but if I love the hat, I can worry about different colors later.
And the socks are just my “run-of-the-mill” socks using Yankee Knitter’s pattern #29. I love the pattern and have knit so many socks over the years that I practically know the pattern by heart. This crazy colorway that I bought at the Maine Fiber Frolic years (and years) ago. These socks will be a gift, as with the blue striped pair that I just finished.
I have a brand new knitter in my afternoon knitting class and today’s storm kept almost everyone home. It gave me an opportunity to help H. remember how to cast on and how to purl so she can try to make her first pair of mittens. She picked up purling really quickly and I feel pretty good sending her home to practice and I told her that if it doesn’t go well, it’s all good. Consider it an opportunity to practice! It’s a ribbed cuff and it can be frogged and re-knit and I told her that I’m re-knitting a sleeve for the third time.
Knitting offers us the opportunity to get used to making mistakes. I used to get frustrated and annoyed by making mistakes but now I can take them in stride and begin again. Forgiving yourself (and others) is a skill that is learned over time and knitting has helped me be more accepting of myself and my flaws. It’s also taught me to be more flexible and forgiving with others. I’m grateful for my sticks and string for having added so much joy to my life but I am also grateful for the lessons that it’s taught me. Life is good.
The lake was covered with untouched snow this morning but there was no visible sunrise. Clouds were thick, there was only a glimpse of pink at the north end of the lake. (It did get better later in the day when the sun was shining briliantly.
I’ve wanted to write about my Nancy’s Vest. My co-worker friend, Glenda, and I are both knitting it so I’ve had a bit of “heads up” which has been helpful. BUT even with her help, I’ve had to stop and frog back three inches of stockinette stitches because I forgot that I was warned to read ahead. Ha! Ha! That’ll show me. Once again, my knitting is keeping me humble and even simple knitting projects can be a challenge.
Nancy’s Vest is by Carol Sunday. It’s knit in one piece from the bottom up and the only finishing is at the shoulders. I chose Manos del Uruguay’s Milo yarn, a sport weight blend of merino and linen (380 yards to 100 grams). I am enjoying the yarn. It’s not at all splitty and it’s very soft. Every once in a while it does get sticky but that’s likely the linen strands and a little bit of vegetable matter. I bought the Manchester colorway, a brownish gray or a grayish brown color. A dark neutral and one that I think I will wear a lot. The vest is a little bit cropped and I’ll likely wear it over my white blouses with slacks (to work) and maybe over a dress.
My first “mistake” was due to not reading ahead. I’d made a lot of progress a couple of Fridays ago at my knitting class. Almost all of it had to be frogged because I forgot to split the vest into two front sides and a back after 12 1/2 inches. Oops.
Today I finished the left front side.
The construction is fun and keeps it interesting with some different techniques. The edging is knitted at the same time as knitting the vest. There are eight stitches for the button placket and button hole placket and they’re knitted at the same time as the vest. The button holes are a different technique that i’ve not done before. Basically, a one-row button hole, slipping stitches and binding them off and then turning your work to (cable) cast on new stitches and close the button hole. Once at the armpits, decreases on either side of the front are made and you really have to be careful here to read ahead. I nearly made a second big mistake, but caught it in time to call it a minor mistake and I only had to frog a few rows. I’ve used my knitCompanion app to keep track of all the different decreases and row counts but I could also see the wisdom of creating a chart of “changes” to be made on each row. I marked each of the decreases on the neck side with a marker so that I could easily count them. It’s worked well (and my stitch count has been spot on!
You are asked to run a “life line” to mark the garment when you reach the armpits. I use dental floss … not peppermint … because it’s slippery and thin and almost always stands apart from the yarn. It makes it really easy to measure the length of the front piece. Great bit of instruction.
I’m now working on the right front side and the second one is going more quickly than the first. I kept track of exactly where I left off when I separated the three sections in the notes section of knitCompanion so that I knew when I attached the yarn to work on the right side I would know it was one WS row before I needed to decrease on the neck edge. Once again, I forgot that I had immediate decreases on the arm hole side, too, and had to frog back one row plus enough stitches to decrease there. That was a simple “fix” thank goodness.
The cable decrease (left and right) are a fun and new-to-me decrease. It’s very attractive on the garment, too. I like it. I’m at the point on the right front where I have arm hole side decreases every four rows and neck side decreases every six rows so I’m being careful to count my rows and mark them. So far so good. I’d love to finish the right side today or tomorrow so I can get to work on the back after work on Thursday.
I’ll report more as I make more progress but for now …
This photo was the second one I took this morning. But this one was the one that made me smile the widest! At the left you can see a fisherman zooming into the frame and at the top right, a hummingbird, getting ready to land on the feeder that’s just out of sight. Ha! That almost never happens.
It’s a beautiful Saturday here on the lake and I’ve been trying to wrap up a bunch of stuff so that we can vacation next week with all of my kids and their families. Dogs are included, too, of course. We’ll be eight adults, one baby and six dogs. It’s always a full house and it’s always fun. We are both … dare I say all … looking forward to a few days together.
So, this morning I’ve made a list of Maine State Reps who represent all of our students at Maine Arts Academy. We are having a ribbon cutting and open house celebration in September and we should always invite those who represent our students. And then I wrote the newsletter for tomorrow for the store. I included in tomorrow’s newsletter that I’m not writing one the following week … vacation rules. I have only one meeting to Zoom into while we’re away and I intend to be present for the kids, the dogs and the granddaughter!
This morning I steam blocked my two finished mini Nordic jumpers for our Advent calendar. I have one more to go. ONE!!! My intent is to do that after I’m done writing this post. Here are 22 and 23.
Twenty-three is the one that has two different white yarns. One is Patagonia Organic Merino, a wooly wool. The other is a superwash something that was in my left-overs bins (yes, you read that right, I have bins of left-overs. I can’t throw yarn away!) I am ok with it the way it turned out. Do I wish that I had had just a little bit more of the Patagonia? Yes. Did I let it ruin my life? Not even close. It’ll do. I’ve cast on #24 and I can probably get it done today. Certainly, I can get it done this weekend.
Yesterday I decided to return a skein of cotton that I had bought to make a bib for my granddaughter because I found a skein of the same cotton in a different colorway that will be just fine for a bib. So, while I was teaching class yesterday and for a while after, I got the bib done.
I also knitted an apple for the fall decorations for the store window. We’re decorating the window (and adding the stems to the apples) on Monday morning. I’m going to try to finish another one or two before then. Cross your fingers. And then as I was cleaning out cupboards and bins, I found two skeins of Plymouth Encore yarn that was gifted to me and I remembered a little sweater that I had the pattern for and (duh!) I cast on a little last minute sweater for my granddaughter. AND found myself knitting the wrong size after an hour or so … 18 months won’t fit her for ages so I frogged it and re-started the 12 month size which may or may not fit her right now. We’ll find out on vacation.
This morning I made my “granola” recipe that I’ve been making for decades and forgot to add the honey which makes the granola more like muesli … it’s not chunks at all, it’s more like loose cereal. I’m sure it’ll taste fine and it’s got less sugar. I also made a batch of blueberry muffins. I may make another dozen tomorrow because the family goes through these like crazy and they will stay fresh in the freezer if they don’t eat them right away.
Dear hubby has been to the dump, mowed the lawn and is napping. This is a perfect chance for me to do a little bit of stitching. Have I talked about the special quilt I’m making? More to follow.
Gone stitching (not sure if with knitting or sewing needles).
Favorite Pullover for Women from Norwegian Knitting Designs 90 Years Later
This is a photo of the pattern that I am currently working on. Another WIP that has been lallygagging in my studio on the shelf while I did all sorts of other little things. I’m “forcing” myself to finish the sweaters (especially the sweaters but there are others) that I have started and never finished … and maybe to have a look at yarn that I’ve bought for sweaters that I’ve not yet started … but I digress.
Favorite Pullover for Women is only in the book Norwegian Knitting Designs 90 Years Later which I purchased a year or so ago on Amazon. It’s a big book full of beautiful patterns. I was taking a traditional Norwegian “genser” class online and this was one of the patterns suggested for beginners like me. (Not a beginner knitter but a beginner who has never knitted a traditional Norwegian genser.) I loved this sweater at first sight.
I bought the yarn from Knitography Farm (who was also teaching the class.) And it’s a lovely sport weight 100% rustic wool straight from the farm in Norway. I bought the traditional colors for the yoke which are all shades of gray – light, medium and dark – and the purple for the body and the pops of color in the yoke and sleeves. The yarn is called “Ask Norsk Ullgarn” (100 grams/ 315 meters).
Saturday night I was knitting away and was really close to finishing the colorwork/stranded section of the yoke. I literally got to within the last three stitches of the second-to-last round and I was short ONE STITCH! One!!! So, back I went to look at the last round because all the other rounds had worked in the pattern, and voila! one dropped stitch was popping its little medium gray head out of the sweater with its tongue sticking out at me. Ugh. That meant that I needed to rip back almost the entire last round … because, of course, the stitch had to be within the first 30 or so stitches of the round not the last 30. But because frogging is part of every knitters life and it keeps us knitting “experts” humble, I frogged all the way back and re-knit the last round and the stitches were perfect.
Yesterday morning I returned to my Favorite Pullover and finished the yoke and it’s really beautiful. I love it. This afternoon I’ve finished my increase round under the stranded colorwork and now I can just knit for a couple of inches until I hit the point at which I can separate the sleeves from the body of the sweater.
I will be trying it on before that time so that I know if it’s long enough for my body and with any luck, that’ll happen later this week. There are a lot of little stitches to one round now … I’m at a stitch count of just shy of 400 stitches … 396 to be exact. So every round is almost 400 stitches and there are likely four or five rounds to the inch so I have a couple of thousand stitches to stitch between now and then. Our car ride to have our TSA pre-check appointments tomorrow should be helpful in that vein.
In the foreground of the photo is the neck of the sweater (or the top) and the purple is at the bottom but I’m knitting from the top to the bottom, I hope that make sense. But you can see the unblocked splendor of this pattern and how nicely the different grays play together – even in my lousy light.
The inside is actually just as interesting as the outside. And I’ve photographed it from the same view.
So, the easy (and boring, to be honest) part is ahead of me where I just knit and knit and knit around to where I split the arms from the body and then I’ll just knit around until the body is complete. I have another sweater that’s in the queue that has some complicated cables that I may have to work on, too, when I get tired of stockinette stitch. We’ll see. I’m really determined to get some projects finished before the end of the year. This is one of them. My Arne and Carlos Advent Jumpers are another… also a pattern from Norway and Norwegian designs. I’ve only got five or six to complete and that needs to happen before December 1 so we can fill them and use them!
This is pretty funny that I’m writing another post (again) this week. This must be a world record, right? I’m going to tell you another story about me that I hope will make you laugh as it did me AND I hope it will make anyone feeling like their knitting skills are still “not good enough” will kick that notion to the curb.
Yesterday was a fairly miserable weather day. Damp and rainy and suitable for ducks and loons, only. We’ve had a lot of days like this in Maine this year. I was working my way up the front of my Lane’s Island Pullover by VersaciKnits and was getting excited because the end was near and I was eager to get to the pockets. I had knitted a few of the shoulder decreases when I realized that I had too many stitches and had another glance at the pattern. I had skipped over four repeats of the single decrease at the neck edge. Ugh!!! I looked at the neck edge and I pondered my choices – just forget about it and continue on, frog back to the decreases and do it “right”, or something else. I decided to do it “right” and frog back to the last decrease and reknit so that the neck looks more balanced when I go to pick up the collar stitches (I assume I’m going to do this. I haven’t read ahead on my pattern.) So, that was my first challenge last night.
I also realized that I had knitted almost all of the three balls of yarn that I had purchased for the sweater. Another glance at the pattern and I realized that I needed three balls EACH of two colors (a total of SIX) and I had bought three balls of the single color I wanted my sweater to be. For the love of … Pete?! Thank goodness I work in a yarn shop. This morning I went in and solved the problem by adding two balls of yarn to my layaway bag just in case and buying one more ball which should be enough for the two sleeves and any finishing that I may need to do.
It’s at times like this, after almost 40 years of knitting, that I find knitting at once humbling and hysterical. Knitting has taught me to laugh at myself. And I mean a real laugh-out-loud belly laugh. It’s always when I think I know what I’m doing that I tend to make the silliest mistakes. This one is one for the ages. (Here’s another one!) I’ve been teaching knitting for nearly 20 years and knitting for almost 40 and I still make plenty of rookie mistakes. In fact, the designer commented on my Instagram post last night, “I would say it was a rookie mistake, but we know you are NOT a rookie!!!” Truer words were never spoken. I’m not a rookie but I can still make a rookie mistake. AND that’s ok. I can … and did, laugh at myself and move on.
Last night I finished the first pocket and put the stitches for the second pocket on the needle, ready to attack it today. I’m one stitch short. It’s lucky I’m an “expert knitter” because I seem unable to count. II’m laughing again. HaHaHa.
We awoke to snow this morning. Yay! I’ve been waiting and wanting some, what we call here in Maine, “measurable snow” and today we are getting it! Since it’s January 20th, let’s say that it’s about time!
When the local schools in Waterville are closed, our classes at the Yardgoods Center are canceled. We have a mostly older customer base and none of us should be out and about in this weather unless we absolutely have to … today is a snow day. The store is closed and classes were canceled. I’m putting my snow day to good use and after I had coffee and a muffin with my dear hubby, I went upstairs into my atelier.
On Wednesday I decided to make microwaveable (corn) heating pads. I’ve had the supplies on the floor of my studio for a year. When the kids came last winter to go skiing, they were a bit achey after their skiing and they used all of the warming things in our house. One in particular, they all liked best. So … I measured the one made by my friend Judy and bought the muslin, flannel and corn to make one for each of the kids. Wednesday I ironed and cut the fabrics and then sewed two of the sides and was ready to fill them and finish them up when I realized that the corn was either moldy or dirty.
Off to the kitchen I took all eight pounds of bagged corn and I cleaned it in bleach water to kill any surviving whatever might have been on it. It was powdery but dry and I am not sure what it was but I am sure, now, that the corn I’m putting into the bags is clean and won’t send something gross out into the air that they breathe when they microwave the bags to warm them up.
Today I brought the washed, dried and baked corn back up into my studio and filled the three bags and sewed up the final side. Ta done! Three microwavable corn-filled heating pads. I have more fabric to make three more but I didn’t buy enough corn. Each of the kids will get one this time and I’ll get three more made for the summer when we go to the beach.
Task number two was to make a heart pillow for daughter number 2 who lost her beloved pup Willow just after Thanksgiving. When we were in NY for Christmas, she asked if I could make a heart pillow out of Willow’s jacket. I am touched that she trusted me to do that for her.
Earlier this week, I cut out a heart shape to use as much of the fleece jacket that I could and pinned the sides together (right sides facing) in preparation to sew them up and stuff it.
At this point in the day I went downstairs to probably clean the corn and while the corn was soaking in bleach water, I decided to make some cranberry water that I’d seen a recipe for online. The cranberries were in my freezer for a year and it was time to do something with them. I had thawed them and just has to blend them with water and strain them. While blending them, the blender (it was overfull, I admit) leaked cranberry water all over the counter. I strained the water and when I was cleaning up I inadvertently switched the blender on and metal piece on the base was too close to my thumb … what a bloody mess I made. Some days … !
I cleaned up my thumb, cleaned up the mess and retreated to my studio for a few minutes of stupid TV and to hold my thumb up over my heart so it would stop bleeding.
Today I finished the pillow and I hope my daughter loves it as much as I love her. It’s far from perfect, I’m not a professional sewer by any imagination but it’s stitched with lots of love. I unstitched the tag from the jacket and put it into the seam so it sticks out as a reminder of what it was. I also preserved the spot where my daughter sewed a tear in the jacket by hand to remind her of how much she loved her pup and the memory of the hole, maybe, too. I’ll deliver it when I go to NY next.
I have been knitting and since this is technically a knitting blog, I should report on my progress. I have been making slow progress with my Emsworth. I’ve picked up the front shoulder stitches, and am working my way down the front. I’ve reached where the increases under the arms are and pretty soon I think I’ll be knitting all the way around the body. I’m enjoying the lace pattern and I love the charcoal gray colorway of the Patagonia yarn. It’s a bit tricky for my “old eyes” to see the dark yarn in the evening but I’m still working away at it.
I’ve finished black sock #1 and have reached the heel of black sock #2. Today will be a good day for me to turn the heel and pick up the gusset stitches. Black yarn really does challenge the eyes. It’s best attacked when the lighting is good and bright. Hahaha!
I also started a new project, the Stashbuster Shawl by Heather Haynes. One of my former co-workers came in in hers and I knew I had the same yarn. Since everything else I’m working on was dark colors, I cast on for this shawl so I have something to knit at the end of the day. I’m enjoying the simple, meditative knitting on this one. Mostly Garter stitch, it doesn’t take a lot of brain power (of which I have precious little at the end of the day.)
My plan for the rest of the day is to do some knitting (as my “blended” thumb will allow.) I am so left-handed that it’s tricky to do anything without my left thumb! I’ve managed to write this post and I’ll probably do some baking today or tomorrow. I found a recipe for sugar cookie bars (they’re frosted and sprinkled, yum!) and I haven’t made any granola since the batch that I took to NY at Christmas time. I might need to vacuum again, too. Don’t let anybody tell you that Labs don’t shed a LOT!
I’ve been working on knitting down my (sizable) stash. When a knitter talks about his/her stash, we all respond that we have bins and bins of yarn. And we do. It seems to me that we all think we have the largest stash but we likely don’t. BUT mine is sizable and I’m proud to say that I did really well to knit only from stash UNTIL I went back to work and customers started giving me ideas again.
This is the yarn corner of my atelier. I had the shelf (and a matching one on the other side of the window holds my knitting books and fabric in the cupboard. Sadly, I have three Ikea shelf sets that also hold yarn. A total of about a dozen fabric boxes in addition to my built-ins. It’s a good sized collection … and I like to think that it adds to the r-value of our home.
Anyway … I digress. I have been trying to knit down my stash so that when I die my children won’t have to deal with it. Partly because they don’t have a clue as to its value. At the end of the year, I dumped out all of the little bins and boxes and went through the yarn to try to cull some that I knew I wouldn’t be knitting with – not ever. I also noticed some that I could knit up and get out. One of those was the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece that I have had forever (or the last time I had fall babies to knit for.) I knew that this yarn had to be a pumpkin hat for my great-nephew-to-be who is due in September and who will live in Salem, MA. A perfect gift for a Salem baby.
So, last week I cast on and knit the smallest size pumpkin hat. I had forgotten how cute the hat is and how little yarn those tiny hats use. I had a significant amount still left. Surely, I thought, I can use it all up if I make a medium-size pumpkin hat, right? This weekend I cast on again and am nearly finished with pumpkin hat number two. And guess what? I have a feeling I have enough for a third hat, too. The extra hats will go into my gifts drawer or maybe I’ll have a giveaway on my Instagram page. I haven’t done that for a long time.
The Fiber Trends Patrick’s Pumpkin hat is really one of my favorite patterns. It’s a clever construction with a “shark tooth” piece done up first in garter stitch and then added to a rolled brim. When the hat is finished and blocked you can tack the pieces to that they stay in the right spot. The pumpkin part is so simple and yet so obviously a large orange gourd and it makes a great gift for a fall baby’s arrival. Especially in New England.
Cotton Fleece yarn by Brown Sheep is what I have always bought for this hat. I’m not sure why but it is. I love knitting with this cotton/wool blend yarn. It’s not as stretchy or squishy as full wool but for a baby’s tender head, it’s a soft but warm alternative to acrylics or acrylic blends. And we all know that cotton yarn doesn’t really hold its shape. So … this seems the perfect solution. I also love Brown Sheep because it’s an American company.
Brown Sheep was started over 100 years ago and pivoted in the 1970s when farming prices were low and the market for lamb was dropping off. The Brown family pivoted and began processing wool from their sheep and the rest is history. The Brown family (now with the last name Wells after a couple of generations of marriage) still owns and runs Brown Sheep.
I’ve made a LOT of these hats but on this last one, for whatever reason, I increased in every stitch when the color changed to orange so I had WAY more than 90 stitches. After an inch or so, when the stitches were so squished on the 16″ needle, I had a second look at the pattern and kept knitting. After two inches, I pulled it out, realizing my error. Good grief. Knitting keeps me humble.
I recovered my place again last night while I was watching the Tony Awards. I’m about ready to decrease for the crown of the hat and then I’ll weigh the remaining yarn to see if I have enough for one more hat. It must be my Yankee upbringing that makes it difficult for me to “dispose” of yarn that could still be used. I hope my fingers and wrists hold up well into old age.
Because I value honesty, I want to tell you a very typical story from knitters. Beginner knitters all the way through to expert knitters. All of us have had this experience that I had today. Fortunately, I can laugh at myself. I made a rookie mistake today.
I pulled one of my UFOs out of the cupboard this week in an effort to get some old projects finished. This one is the Anchor Sweater, an intarsia sweater in a child size, by Roo Designs. I started this sweater last year when I was teaching an intarsia workshop. And once the class was over, I put the sweater away and “forgot about it” until I started a cleaning up program in the New Year.
Today I started working on the back of the sweater. My pattern says that the back needs to be knitted until it’s 16 inches long. I got knitting this morning in my class and then at lunchtime I found the back that I had knitted last year …. I should have been knitting the front! Oh, crap!
So, tonight, when I got home, I frogged back to where I started this morning and began following the chart for the anchor. And I was laughing at myself and my rookie mistake.
All of this is to say that I am not perfect. Many people might consider me an expert (I don’t think I’ll ever get there, it makes me laugh because I still learn new things about knitting all the time!) I make mistakes. Lots of them. On a regular basis. This time, here’s what I did wrong … (the idea here is for me to teach you something, right?) I put a project away without making a note on the pattern noting exactly where I stopped work. I “should” have at the very least marked my pattern with a big arrow showing where I begin knitting. If I had marked my pattern (with a big arrow?) I would have known that I’d finished the back and was working on the front.
Queen Bee Knits 