Learning to shrug it off

I started this little sweater back in May with high hopes and great expectations. I had tried on the store sample many times and it fit me so good that I didn’t ‘t see any reason NOT to make it. However, the first red flag showed up when I posted the project on Ravelry and noticed that there was only ONE other person making this sweater (officially called “Bolero Jacket with Batwing sleeves”). Did this deter me? Not at all. I’m an experienced knitter and I know that technically I can knit just about anything. It’s the proper motivation that often eludes me. Sometime I just don’t want to work that hard y’know?

The second red flag came with the stitch pattern otherwise known as the Fisherman’s Rib. I found an excellent tutorial online but this stitch pattern uses twice the yarn and is rather slow going as it takes two rows of knitting to complete one row of actual knitted fabric. Not to worry. I’m using Lion Wool-ease here and the cost of materials just happens to be less than 10 bucks!

The problem came with shaping and decreasing in the Fisherman’s Rib. Being a naturally impatient person and just wanting this project to be finished, I plowed ahead on the decreases without fully understanding the instructions. The result is some of the worst knitting I’ve done in years – what I’ve pictured above. And that’s only half. Although the sweater is knit in one piece, I still need to shape the right front. Unfortunately, I have a bad case of knitting constipation with this one. I think it’s in danger of going into permanent hibernation.

Since this was my first Rebecca pattern and I had bought the booklet, I figured I should make at least one other pattern to get my money’s worth. I picked up 200g of Plymouth Yarn’s homestead before I left Portland and about a week ago, I cast on another shrug, simply called 09 Shrug, from the Rebecca #32booklet.

There isn’t much information about this pattern and again, only one other person on Ravelry has made it but ended up ripping it out completely.

”Finished it, but just didn’t suit me.” Susisanne said
“Should so have taken a picture though…” Yes, I wish she had taken a picture too.

So far this has been a very enjoyable and straightforward knit and in less than a week, I’ve knit almost 20cm. It required more than 200g of Plymouth Homestead and luckily I was able to track down another skein at the Yarn Boutique in Lafayette. Lovely place with a great selection. You should check it out sometime.

So NOW my problem is that the dye lots don’t match. Remember to always, always, ALWAYS get more yarn than you need. It’s taking all the strength I can muster not to rip this project out and to see its completion. Mistakes, as we all know, are only obvious to the creator and rarely, if ever, to the outside world.

Note: High key (white on white) photos were never my strong suit and without my beloved MacBook, I didn’t spend an exorbitant amount of time correcting these photos. Even rarer is that I should apologize for it, like I’m doing now. Oy vey!