Monday, March 19, 2007

"Oh the Doing and Undoing"*

"Oh, the sighing and the suing." *

You know, I could get a complex. I don't think Elizabeth likes me. That or I deeply offended her in a former life and she has been waiting and watching. "Nyah - a- ah! Now I have her! She thinks she's going to knit a seamless sweater! Hah! and hah! again!"

It's the sleeves this time. No, let me correct that. I have not progressed to plural. It's the sleeve. The one and only, at the moment. If it doesn't shape up soon, it will remain so. John will have a dysfunctional sweater.

Note that it's all the sleeve's fault, not mine. I can so do stockinette. Also increases. And I know how to count. Just, apparently, not all at once. At least, not on this sweater.

This is where the sleeve was when I went to bed last night. Flushed with the success of joining those 44 stitches onto a 16" needle, I powered through the cuff ribbing. It all got ugly when I reached the first increase row. Hubris, you know. I thought I knew how to increase. I thought wrong. When my stitch count was off by 1, I thought I just kept forgetting one of the increases. Ignoring the warning bells and flashing lights going off in my brain, I thought I could drop down and correct it. Last night, I thought I was the victor.

I think my knitting is developing an adversarial attitude. This is what I found this morning. Right where the increases are supposed to be, it's as hole-y as a slice of Baby Swiss. And the stitch count is still wrong.

If my sleeve could talk, it would be saying "Sorry, sweetheart. You have not internalized increases." Why didn't I look it up? Well, I suppose I've already answered that question.

This is what the sleeve looks like, now.

Adversarial, huh? I'm so going to unearth my crochet hooks.
* Gilbert and Sullivan. Yeoman of the Guard.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Maybe Elizabeth used a different kind of increase than the one you're using? I certainly sympathise with the frustration on the sweater, I'm still stuck on my Peace Fleece sweater with no end in sight.