Case of the Dumbs

Does anyone remember the test teachers in elementary school used to give you and instruct you to read the whole test first BEFORE answering?  And then, envitably, out of the 25 questions, question 23 would say "only answer questions 2 and 6 of this test.

I was always- ALWAYS the kid who had to go back and erase all the questions I wasn't supposed to answer.  Call it over-eagerness or whatever you like, I dive right in, consequences be damned.

Well- consequences be damned... I should have read the pattern the whole way through.

WARNING TO MY SISTER: if you read this blog... LOOK AWAY or big Christmas day spoilers will happen.

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A while ago my sister texted me a pic of the infamous Shark blanket that took the internet (and Facebook) by storm.

It IS cute.  And it's funny and it's the right kind of whimsical my sister loves.  (My sister loves her some whimsy.)  The problem?  It's crochet.  And no WAY Jose am I attempting to crochet a whole blanket for Christmas.  Nope. Nope. Nope.

But then, a lovely, relatively new knitter, that I know personally (from waaaay back) was innovative and smart enough to figure out the pattern for knitting.  (I so admire how she just dives right in and figures things out!  )It showed up on my Ravelry Favorites page and I was like "DAMN- no excuses now!"  And so, I qued it up and kept my eyes open for the right yarn.

I love this project because it's knit with super big and bulky yarn and just last week Michaels had just the yarn I wanted, on sale no less, that would make the project perfect.  The original is knit in chenille but I just can't go there with chenille.... it's not fun to knit with.  But, I found a similarly weighted yarn in a simple twist.  Sure, it's acrylic, but this is sort of an acrylic friendly blanket.

Armed with yarn, free from the tyranny of the hats I needed to knit, I cast this puppy on.  I didn't read ahead.  I found the wording a little different, but I am a fairly experienced knitter and I could figure it out!

Except that I couldn't.

I couldn't get the gauge right.  I was following the pattern but I wasn't getting the right length and I was adding all kinds of rows and WHY WAS IT NOT WORKING?

I happen to be Facebook friends with the knitter who wrote the pattern and I asked her a few questions (that in hindsight she was probably like "WHY ARE YOU SO DUMB!?) about the pattern and she very quickly and nicely answered me and I was like 'AHA' it makes sense.

And then I went ahead and just kept making dumb mistakes.  I knit an entire ball of yarn this way, wrongly into the pattern.  And still- it didn't look right.

Finally.  FINALLY - I was frustrated and I was like "DAMMIT WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!?" and then I went ahead and read the whole pattern from start to finish.

Yeah.  It made all kinds of good sense when I read through it.

DUMB.  I am dumb.

I ripped it out last night.  I cast it back on and I will restart this tonight.

Lest you worry that it's all 1 step forward 80 rows back over here... I also finished the first sock and knit the cuff for #2 from the sock I keep telling myself that I'll finish before Christmas.  (I have LOFTY LOFTY goals this year apparently....)

I have a week before "CRAZY INSANE CHRISTMAS" schedule takes over my life.  This week NEEDS to be productive.  I'm even thinking about staying up late every night just to get a good jump on both of these things.  I can do this.  I just need to concentrate.  (And maybe be a little less dumb from here on out...)

To finish this on a "paw-sitive" point- I give you kittens in various states of adorable....