Beaver! Craft!

Proof that it’s all worth it

February 14th, 2008

All that driving to lower Canadia, all that math, all the homework, all of that.

The purple sweater was finished. FINISHED. Done. Ends woven in and everything. Turned in, proclaimed to be “very beautiful” by Jean (WOOT!), done done done. Well… Except for that tiny bit of “next time, you can do this other thing, if you want to…” from Jean, pointing out something about the neckline that was, once again, used as an example in front of the class.

See, I had followed what she’d taught us thus far when I did the neckline and ribbing, and it was fine, but there was (of course) a slightly different and better way it could be done next time. HA! And then I tried it on, and it was all perfect everywhere except the neckline. Of course. That was too big. WAY too big.

Here’s where the proofy bit comes in - my reaction to the neckline being too big? “oh, I’ll just RIP IT OUT AND REDO IT”. No swearing, no trepidation, nothing other than maybe a wee bit of excitement (which, honestly, strikes me as maybe a touch of insanity…). So I did. Ripped it right the fuck back. Didn’t even hesitate. It was SO freakin’ liberating!. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP! Then, of course, I got to pick up all those stitches again, and do a crapload of math because now I not only had to evenly space the decreases, but I had to not decrease across the center of the front, *and* I had to figure out how to space the decreases while doing 2×2 ribbing that matched the center stitches. And? And? I did it. It took a while, but the math got done and the decreases are spaced evenly into the ribbing and the ribbing matches at the center front and it won’t be too big this time.

Critterboy, of course, looked at me like I was a total loon when I started ripping the neckline back and doing all that math. And then especially when I was doing the triumphant happy dance when I finished it and it all worked. Heh.

This hasn’t been a tremendously difficult pattern, really, even with all the ripping back and redoing of the maths, but I’ve learned SO much on this one, and have absolutely lost my fear of crazy knitting math and pattern drafting. And that, my friends, makes it ALL worth it.

And in other news: MADRONA! Today! More on that later, after I’ve been and seen and (omg! Bluster Bay Woodworks!) bought…

Entry Filed under: Nihon Vogue, Outings and get-togethers