The Best of Me

About a month ago I started the Top Seed Shawl from Cast On (issue May-July 2007). I did my gauge swatches, found the right needles & was off and running. I was very pleased with the yarn I

 chose. Reynolds Saucy Sport. A lovely sage green. I was so lucky to have purchased 10 skeins from someone in my weekly knitting group (thanks Erin).

Right from the start I knew I was short 1 or 2 skeins. The corner cutter that I am, I thought I could slip 1 or 2 skeins of another dye lot

 in without anyone noticing. WRRRONG! I got about 10" done before I noticed. Honestly, I didn't even notice. The lighting in my house is so terrible I couldn't see that my beautiful Tiny Bowknot stitch was 2 very different colors. It was embarrassingly pointed out to me. Devastated, I took it home & threw it in the corner. It took me 2 weeks to confront it. I finally frogged it, rewound the yarn and started it all over. I had a plan (really it was Steve's plan). I would knit the body with the 10 skeins of "good yarn", as I began calling it, and do the sleeves with the 2 skeins of "bad yarn".

10" along, again, I discovered that I still won't have enough yarn to do the body! I also had decided this would be a Mother's Day gift. With a little over a month to go, I would need to knit about 2.5 - 3" every day to finish.

Back to not having enough yarn. I am getting gauge, but it is 4" wider than it is suppose to be. Why? I have no friggin idea. I am, however, getting 5" of length out of each skein. It doesn't take a genius to figure out if I cut 4" of width off I will have enough yarn for the body.

I just keep knitting. I am in denial. This is exactly what I do with everything. Just keep going & pretend it's not there. It's April 7 & I haven't even looked at my taxes. Say no more.

I love knitting, but there is something that I am missing. The ability to stop when things aren't going right & do it over & over & over if it's necessary. I think, "It's not perfect, so what." Why put all that work into it if it's not wearable?

I started the sleeves & put the body away for a bit. Let's be honest, there is more frogging in my future. Good news, I get to cut 18 stitches off of pattern when I start over.