Not as Fed Up as I Thought I Was

The green panel is done.

I apparently did something wrong at the very beginning, so when I came to the final shaping instructions, the ends didn't match. And they kept on not matching. They didn't match several times last night. They didn't match again this morning. My chart and my book are all marked up with some of what I tried. The rest of what I tried was strictly seat of my pants knitting. Wing and a prayer knitting. Hail Mary pass knitting. Mostly it involved changing pattern p2tog's and ssk's for k2tog's (there must be something very wrong with the way I do ssk, even when I think I'm doing them right).

I'm still not actually happy with it. I'm thinking I should have switched the pattern k2tog's for ssk's but I don't think I can bear to rip it out again. I mentioned the possibility to Himself and he looked at me like I had sprouted a second head. He thinks the ends match. I've decided it's his call. The green panel is done.

Now I have a decision to make. Have I earned a respite and can I go knit the easy panels with a clear conscience? Or should I suck it up, tackle the corner motifs and then allow myself to slide into simplicity?

I'm leaning to get the hard over with and call it done like the Cubs in mid-season, (Don't start. I grew up on the West Side. I'm a Cub's fan. One sunny June afternoon I sat through 17 innings to watch them lose. I am grounded in reality). After all. I am now the proud possessor of Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled. She has a diagram of a double increase in knit that I should be able to apply to my nemesis, the double increase in purl. Between that and the Knitsmith's photographs (thank you, thank you, thank you), surely I can get it right this time?

Meanwhile, in my head I've been preparing a rant. An anti-cable rant. I thought cables were going the way of two color knitting and lace. You can show me Fair Isle till the cows come home, waft lace in front of me from sunup to sundown. I am unmoved. Bohus knitting? Could care less. Clapotis? Wedding Ring shawl? Nope. The only exceptions are the Bubbly Lace curtain and the Rovaniemi mitts. Otherwise, I wouldn't touch either type with tongs.

So as I cursed and wrestled my way through this panel, it was with the assumption that I would finish this piece, get the remaining panels out of the way (strictly as an exercise in discipline and promises kept; I had no thought of pleasure in the project), and shake the dust of cables from my shoes.

I am, therefore, somewhat discomfited to realise that in looking at the Kaya Aran Shrug (it's free) over at Crystal Palace/Straw.com (and you, oh Kelly Green Rogue, are so to blame for posting it to your Ravelry queue), I'm intrigued. To my further bemusement, on a final art supply project run to Michael's for John, I came home with this.

It has cabled dishcloths, and that's why I bought it.

It turns out the end of my rope is farther away than I thought it was. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. After all, what's a synonym for rope?