In Like a Lion...

... OUT like a lamb!

When last we left this little blog I was in the very depths of despair. I couldn't seem to knit anything right and I was extremely frustrated. Since that post- some things have changed.

1) Baby naps and goes to bed earlier now! OMG yay! My little big guy is napping in the afternoons and going to bed earlier and mommy now has an hour or two to knit everyday, I can't even tell you how happy I am about this development. (Bonus he's a MUCH happier camper now too.)

2) I went to knit night on Tuesday and with the support of my knitting "moms" I ripped Nebula back to the heel. When I began knitting it again I discovered my error. I skipped a whole increase section! No wonder I was missing so many stitches! And so... without further ado- I give you NEBULA!

Pattern: Nebula by Cookie A.

Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin in "Aquarius"

Needle: 2.75 mm (I always have to knit at least a size bigger for Cookie socks as I tend to get very tight gauge)

Thoughts: OMG this was a challenge. The number of starts and finishes on the second sock was the most demoralizing experience of my life. This is NOT the pattern writer's fault... it's entirely the knitter... who should have paid closer attention. (If I had a dollar for every time I've had to admit that I would be very, VERY wealthy.)

I personally think by the way these turned out that they worth every ounce of pain and suffering I put into them. They are gorgeous. They may have a destiny this summer... we'll see.

Just OH... I can't stop admiring them from all angles!

3) I decided to give myself a little break from the "knitting agenda" I have been following and the rest of March is for working on my little Maui Fling sock... so far she's coming along beautifully.

So fear not faithful readers things are slowly, but surely getting back on track for knitting successes and FINISHES. Coming up in April, I pull the blanket out of it's hiding place and begin working it's way to a finish as well.

Broken

I'm at a loss- I don't know what to do. I think my knitting mojo is broken. Like super, mega, totally broken... It's not that I don't WANT to knit... oh god I want to knit so badly, it's that when I DO knit... I fail. Epically.

When last we last left this blog I was suffering a blow on a decrease gone awry. I made myself two promises after trying to soothe my battered knitting ego. 1) I would rip back the sock but not knit it in Maui and 2) I would allow myself something new and fun to knit in Maui. (We were in Maui last week.) And so, one day during a nap time, I had a glass of wine, sat on the lanai, looked at my view...

and ripped back the sock. I achieved zen- or close to it. I frogged those stitches carefully to where I believe the error was, counted the correct number of stitches, knit one row to get me back on track and then I tucked the sock away pleased with myself that I corrected the issue and could start fresh when I got home.

We came home on Sunday, and by Sunday evening, I took advantage of a sleepy/early to bed baby and I decided to revisit the Neubula sock and begin again. I knit the entire cable decrease section over. I counted the stitches again. I was 5 short. FAIL. I don't know where I have gone wrong, but the only answer seems to be rip back to the HEEL and begin again. *sigh Behold Nebula, before I frog it for time #2. (I'm going to need a lot more than a glass of wine!)

So yes- Nebula is killing me- but at least I had my new and exciting project to turn to. Spring Fling in my shiny new Madelintosh was the perfect sock to take with me to Maui. A picot cuff, a pretty lace design, it had everything I wanted in a perfect distraction project. Except there were two problems; 1) by the 3rd pattern repeat I was frustrated that it looked nothing like the pattern in the picture and 2) it was knitting up huge. Instead of stopping myself, admitting there was an issue, I soldiered on.

It wasn't until I came home did I really start to second guess myself. Trust me when I say that this sock, while pretty looks nothing like it's finished picture and would fit loosely on the ankle of an elephant. I mentioned to the MiL that I was going to email the pattern author and let her know that something has gone terribly awry in her pattern publishing and she should fix the pattern. MiL agreed that a) sock was enormous and b) the stitch pattern looked wrong. It wasn't until MiL offered to look at the pattern to find where the author went wrong did the real problem present itself. I had been knitting this stitch pattern as a 4 row repeat. It's actually a 12 row repeat! The remaining EIGHT ROWS were on the next page. DUH. FAIL. So guess what I frogged this afternoon? We also agreed I had to go down a needle size also to get a better fit.

Two projects. Two failures. My knitting ego is suffering. I don't know why I suck at knitting right now- but I need a WIN in the worst way. I don't know what to do next. I can tell you that I'm not going to attempt the sweater... that requires genuine thinking and attention paying and apparently those are two things I am not good at for the moment. I could pull out the baby dots blanket and try and revive that? I just need something that I cannot, no matter how hard I try, screw up. Not even Don Music and his version of "Row Row Your Boat" can save me now.

And so- because there is going to be some time before we see something finished on this blog again- I will show you my favorite picture from Maui, which has nothing to do with knitting but may be a reason I'm not paying the closest of attention these days:

He's a cute distraction, isn't he?

Son of a....

Alternate Blog Title: How Don Music Saved the Night

%^#*(&@(*%(*@**#*%(#*@*&^$!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM SO ANGRY AT MYSELF RIGHT NOW. SO ANGRY.

Determined to finish the sock by the end of day tomorrow I stayed up and I knit like a little fiend. I got all the way down to the start of the toe decreases. I figured I could probably squeeze in the final 18 rows tomorrow and then VIOLA... sock.

No Viola. No sock.

There are an uneven number of bottom of the foot stitches (16 one side, 17 the other). I decided to count right at the end to make sure that I had 33 top of the foot stitches since it's easy to fudge if you're missing a stitch for some reason. I'm not missing A stitch. I am missing EIGHT stitches. I had 25 stitches. 25 stitches!!!!! HOW DID I DO THAT?

I immediately emailed MiL in a torrent of fury at myself. Like really- how could I do this? And more importantly where!? How many rows do I have to go back?! After much thinking and muttering and okay, (sorry Puritans), CURSING, I think I know where I have gone array. Somewhere around the middle of the foot, at the cable decreases. It is going to kill me and pain me in every way imaginable to tink back row by row until I get back to a position where I am right again. Oh god just thinking about it makes me want to curl up in a ball and weep.

Venting at my MiL wasn't enough, I decided to also tweet my anguish. Remember that muppet on Sesame Street who used to bang his head on the piano when he made a mistake? That is what I wanted to do. I was worried that no one would remember the, in my humble opinion, GREATEST MUPPET SKETCH EVER, so I decided to link it up to youtube.

And dammit- watching "Don Music" screw up and bang his head on the piano made me feel better. In moments I was laughing. Please, do yourself a favor today and enjoy Don in all of his brilliance, because without Don I'd still be in a corner weeping.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

ABC Song

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Apparently Sesame Street had to stop airing this sketch because too many children were emmulating Don on the piano and hurting themselves. (This in itself makes me giggle... because I'm a little bit sick that way.)

Is fixing this going to hurt? Yes. A rather lot. But I think I'll download some of Don's greatest hits to watch while I plow through. Thank you Don. Thank you Jim Henson- 30 some odd years later your stuff can still take a really crappy moment and make it better.