Oops

 Oops!

Now, how on earth did I do that?  I used a row counter.  I used the same needles.  I knit them on consecutive days.

Oh, I know how I did that!  

Good grief!  

You know what I did?  I started off several repeats using the "0" on the row counter as a counted row.  Instead of telling the marker I was on row 1, I told it I was knitting row 0.  Doh!

Good thing I used a large skein.  I can simply recreate my error and knit a second pair of mismatched gloves that hopefully will match these.  Although it might be easier, simpliler and quicker to forget these and just start over.

If you are interested, the yarn is left over Colorburst I still had in the stash pile.

I've never been good at math

Knitters, bakers and mathematicians world wide know what tomorrow is - Pi Day.  Every year I say I'm going to cast on a Pi shawl and most years I'm able to ignore the urge.  The years I do cast one on, I'm cussing myself a few months into the project.  Have you ever knit a pi shawl?  They are so fun and quick to knit the first 4,000 rounds, but those last 20,000 rounds take FOREVER!

This year, I'm proud and excited to announce I did not have the urge.  Well, not a big urge.  It was just a teeny, tiny, "I should knit a Pi something for a blog post" urge.  So I knit a Pi dish cloth.

Pi fail

Or at least, I tried to.  I think I screwed up my math because it turned out to be shaped like a VERY wide brimmed sombrero for Barbie.  Oh well.  It will still scrub the dishes just fine.  And, it's green so it counts as my St. Patrick's Day knit.

If you're curious, the yarn is Dishie from Knit Picks in the Caterpillar colorway.  I used US 5 needles and cast on three stitches.  I think for a Pi, I needed four, maybe.  Really, I don't understand why it didn't work.  With the math of pi, it should have worked.  I knit a row, increased a row.  Knit 2 rows, increased a row.  Knit four rows, increased a row....  It should have worked.  But then, I've never been good at math.

Happy Friday 13th and wishing you a pie filled Pi Day tomorrow!

Wowza!

Apparently I've forgotten how to purl.

I'm embarrassed to even show the finished Newborn Vertebrae sweater.  For once I'm happy the photo is blurry and taken in bad lighting.  The shadows and blurriness help hide the flaws.

How could I botch something so simple, so badly?  Apparently I've forgotten how to purl.

When I think back to most, if not all my 2019 projects, they've been either stockinette in the round, flat garter or open lacework where the purl vs. knit gauge didn't matter that much.  But take a look...

Good grief!  Look at the difference between the body of the sweater knit flat and the sleeve knit in the round.  

Good stinking grief!

I need to go back to beginner's knitting class.

So, this little sweater will be saved for those days when the laundry hasn't been done in two weeks, baby is extra spitty, and they don't leave the house. 

Good grief!

A lesson in swatching

Oops!

Yesterday's 'large project' got frogged.  Once again, I got that hard slap to the face that often results from a lack of proper swatching.

Frogged the secret project

For the record, I did swatch.  Sort of.  Can I count ten stitches and six or seven rows as a swatch?  My mini swatch seemed perfectly fine but.... As we all know, mini swatches tend to lie, sometimes even more than no swatches.  Although the mini swatch seemed fine, it ended up producing stiff as cardboard fabric that was waaaaaaaay bigger than anticipated.

Will I ever learn?

In any event, it got frogged and has been cast back onto the needles.  Larger needles and with about half as many stitches.

On a different note, only one more day of NaBloPoMo to go!  I'm very proud of myself this year.  I haven't missed a single day! 

Join me over at Kat's for today's #Unraveled link-up.

SOS

I'm feeling a bit like I'm on a sinking ship these days.

Annis Shawl

I finished my Annis shawl last night . Do you notice anything odd about it?  Anything odd other than it's loose ends still hanging from it?

That'll block right out.

It's a little on the small side.  Obviously I didn't knit to the proper gauge.  Honestly, I never checked my gauge.  It's a shawl.  It doesn't have to fit.  Besides, the pattern called for lace weight yarn and I used fingering and a needle appropriately slightly too large for the yarn.   Big, massive mistake apparently.

Train Station

I thought about frogging it and starting over but.... I love the dark, smokiness of the knitted fabric and I really, really don't want to deal with all those beads coming loose so....  I'm thinking I might sew the ends together and call it a decorative cowl.  But then.... maybe, just maybe the magic of blocking will stretch that baby out.

And then there's the grapes.

Do you notice what's behind the grapes?  Yep, our garden gate.  Dammit!  Someone forgot to trim the grape vines back this spring.

Shipwreck

And last but not least, Shipwreck.  Shipwreck is a collection of Gloss Lace from Knit Picks that I bought as a birthday present to myself.  Between my love of all things nautical and my tendency to sink any boat I board, I thought it was an appropriate gift.  Now, if I could just decide what to knit with it.  Suggestions are welcome.

Ribbit

Well, I'm knitting one less striped thing.  My squishy gray cowl that I loved so much turned on me.  It turned quickly & violently.

My original plan was to knit the cowl in color blocks with two strands of different colors of worsted and one strand of lace weight yarn.  The lace was a tonal gray and the worsteds would be light gray, dark gray and a slate blue. All by themselves, the colors coordinate and contrast perfectly.  Everything was knitting up fine until I added the slate blue.  Mixed with the grays, the blue became an uncoordinated, not enough contrast to see clearly yet glaringly different pile of weirdness.

Frogging 3 yarns knit together

And so I spent all night frogging the entire project.  Yes, I spent the entire night frogging two worsteds and a lace weight yarn that had been knit simultaneously.  The Entire night.

Just shoot me.  Please!

And if I ever mention doing something similar, shoot me again.  I beg you.

And yes, that is candy corn and a Christmas glass in the same photo.  Don't judge.  I LOVE my Christmas glass.  My uncle gave me a set back when I was really way too young to appreciate receiving a set of glasses for Christmas.  But he was no dummy.  The glasses turned out to be my favorite thing to drink out of.  Thirty-ish years later and I still drink out of them constantly. Thanks Uncle Hank! I just wish that once I took the glasses out of my hope chest, that I'd thought to tell you how much I love them.