Insanity

Well, good news first.  After my last post the "urge" hit me and I began working on my mystery project in earnest and really started making progress.

It was all going so well that yesterday I decided to just go ahead and enter it for the Stampede.  (I also entered the Sleepy Baby blanket so my friend will have to wait for after Stampede if she wants it!)  I kept my schedule open and just kept furiously knitting and knitting and knitting on it.  My goal was to finish the first mitt by Thursday and I was WELL on track of this.

And then, last night, I realized something.  This mitten is ENORMOUS.  E.N.O.R.M.O.U.S.  Here's what I have:

I'm at least 10 rows out before I even START decreasing.  They're just too damn long.

At first I thought, Ok, I'll just take out one of those cuff patterns and viola- issue resolved.  Except after thinking about it that wasn't going to be the answer either.  I need to shorten the hand part, (I really don't mind longer cuffs on my mittens) around the thumb hole, shortening the cuff will still result in an equally long mitten.

*sigh*

After sleeping on it- I think I've resolved what to do.  It means taking out a section of the pattern (about 13 rows) and moving forward.  It's SO. Painful to think about what I have to do, because it means a tremendous amount of ripping out work.  But, I'm going to rip it back to the cuff and start again.  *cries*

I literally just stopped this blog post and did it now.  See?

*SOBS HYSTERICALLY*

How many false starts have I had with this project?  What's the definition of insanity again?  Doing the same thing over and over and garnering the same (wrong) results?  I feel like I'm toeing the line of insanity here.  WHY are my Stampede projects so painful?  Last year's project was equally emotionally painful and I felt like I was going mildly insane too.  I guess the big question now- is it even worth it?

(Let's not talk about gauge ok?  NO.  I didn't knit a gauge swatch.  Mostly because I knit my sister's mittens with THE SAME YARN and essentially tailored the pattern to the exact size.  I have NO. IDEA. where the failure is here.... but OMG I'm so miserable about it!)

And so the goal now is have this mitten done by Friday night.  Cross your fingers.  *goes back to crying.*