Lessons in Frogging

Tis done, tis done! The afghan is done! All 45" x 50" of it. And it looks so inviting I just wanted to curl up with it under the deliciously cold A/C. Then I remembered that it's not for me. Hee.

Pics to come later. Am grappling with compatibility issues between my new camera and my ancient computer (iMac running OS 9, that's how ancient!).

Anyhow, it's done, and I've got 8 balls of Shine left over to play with ... just enough for a summer top, methinks. So, I pull out my handy-dandy, ever-growing (yikes!) project to do list, flip through the mags, surf the net and settle on the lovely Lelah, which you should all know if you do any knitblog/crafty web surfing, is designed by the fabulous Christine over at Knitting for Boozehags, where I religiously lurk. What a mad, run-on sentence! Clearly, I care not (about the poor grammar).

Now having been quite the geek, I was always rather good in math, and enjoyed it (so much so that this English major also minored in it). Thusly, the concept of guage assimilated into my brain quite readily. Apparently though, understanding guage and applying it correctly are two different things. Was about 8 rows into my knitting when I realized that I had used the wrong ratio in converting Christine's pattern to my size. Naturally, I had to frog it. Re-cast my stitches, and despite my attention to marking them off in sets, about three-quarters of the way through my "second" first row, realized that I had only 10 stitches in a group, where there should have been 11. I suppose I could have just increased there, but since I hadn't even completed a full row, just ripped again and went for take three. Counted dilligently, re-counted even more dilligently and went about my way.

Made it through the next four rounds without mishap. But alas, that was too good to be true. The even rounds in this pattern are quite easy and methodical such that after I completed round 4, I just kept going, past my beginning round stitch marker, for a good 6 or 7 pattern sets or so. Sheesh. That should have been my sign to just put the damn thing down and pick it up later, but no, of course I had to fix it right then and there. So I went about unknitting. And during that picking process I did quite a bit of learning ... I learned about the structure of the stitch. As I was unknitting I was remembering my starting days not so long ago, when the diagrams all just looked like strands crisscrossing each other with little rhyme or reason, and all of a sudden, the loops and their respective configurations made sense! So, what they say about learning from your mistakes ... well, I learned this time around anyhow!