Speed Bumps

I finished ToolMan's socks last week but he's wearing them in bed and you really don't want to see pictures of that, do you?

Dolly has been repaired and is back home on her shelf.  I'm a bad blogger who forgot to take pictures.

I need another sweater, especially a cardigan so I picked the Tangled Yoke Cardigan pattern and started swatching last week.  And then came the speed bumps.

The pattern was written to knit in one piece, flat; but I decided to knit in the round and steek.  Really, that was my plan.   I can only claim temporarily insanity because that's the only reason I can think of that I would even consider voluntarily steeking a cardigan.  I did, however, get gauge right off the bat while knitting in the round. 

But then I came to my senses and decided to actually follow the pattern.  So, I ripped out the circular swatch and reknit the swatch.  And didn't get gauge.  Crap. Switched needles and got stitch gauge but not row gauge.  Back up in needle size and hit gauge, both stitch and row with the needles I originally started with.  Go figure.  Anyway, I ripped out the swatch and cast on.

Knitted the first row and realized it was 2 stitches short.  Crap.  I added on the two stitches with a knitted cast on and knitted happily along.

Knitted about 3 inches rows and realized my markers were in the wrong places.  I had too many on one side front and not enough on the other, and just the right amount in the back section.  Which meant my side seams were all catywompus.  Crap.  I ripped out and started again.

This time, I was smart enough to put in my markers while casting on.  Checked and double checked stitch counts before knitting.  Got the right numbers in all sections, and merrily knitted for about 3 inches.  Realized there's an error in the pattern and the side seams in the garter rib are not symmetrical.  Crap.  Now, asymmetrical side seams might not be the kind of thing that might not bother you, but I KNOW it will drive me absolutely bat-shit crazy.  Double checked the pattern and realized I had mis-read the pattern.  Crap.  More ripping and cursing followed.

Cast on yet again, using stitch markers again to make certain I have the right count, again.  Knit the first row, while actually reading the pattern this time.  Knit the second row while actually reading the pattern this time.  Knitted a few more rows and examined to make sure everything is symmetrical, the right count, the right gauge (because we all know swatches are lying little bastards), and the measurement matched the pattern.  So I began actually knitting the sweater and not something that would later turn out to be crap.

So, after knitting on this thing on Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon and evening, and almost the entire day Sunday, this is how much knitting I have done on this frikkin' sweater:

That's right, three inches.  God help me when I get to the cables.