March 13, 2005

Guage! Guage! Guage!

Typing "guage" over and over again sure makes the spelling look funny -- is it just me?

My yarn order came in and I've begun to knit my first piece of clothing. Per mum's advice, I've decided to start with a vest, so there's no sleeve fussing. Since this is the first time I'm knitting where guage actually matters, and having read tomes of listserv cautions about getting guage right, I sat dilligently for about an hour and a half trying to get the damn numbers. After four takes and two needle sizes up, get there I did.

But the trials and tribulations do not stop there. Got through to the instructed 2 inches of ribbing, and began the body stitch, only to find that knitting while watching TV had me slightly distracted and I lost count of my rows. Apparently, ticking off rows only works when you actually tally after a row (go figure). The dark color of the yarn made it a bit difficult to see the pattern well and figure out where I was, and despite stitch being only a 6-row pattern and I also discovered that mid-row somewhere I had somehow reversed it. Thankfully, I hadn't gotten very far yet, so I decided frogging back to the ribbing and starting over was less frustrating than figuring out where I misstepped. Sheesh! Mum is extremely amused, with a smug, knowing look on her face. I aspire to have smug, knowing look one day.

Below are the "Mocha Heather" supply and surviving ribbing. If it takes this long to start a project ...

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