GamecockDoc

Ok, it isn't the lace that's stupid

It's me. I was pretty hard on Charlotte yesterday, and this disaster really wasn't her fault. I need to take complete responsibility.

First mistake - using dental floss to make my lifeline. I'm not a sewer so thread is hard to come by in my house. I read somewhere that dental floss works, but I later remembered they specified non-waxed. All I had was waxed. This created a big issue when attempting to use said lifeline because the yarn stuck to the floss.

Second mistake - placing the lifeline on the purl row. The floss became all tangled up in the k2tog skpso mess and made it really hard for me to weave my needles back through the stitches.

Third mistake - attempting to knit lace while hanging out with my family who kept asking me questions (like what exactly does my blood pressure medicine do? how is Plavix different from aspirin? do the mashed potatoes need more salt?) Pausing in my knitting/chart reading to talk got me all messed up. I kept losing my place on the chart and getting confused about where to put the yo. I'm just not good enough at this lace/chart thing yet to multitask.

Fourth mistake - not counting my stitches frequently enough. So I'm going along - pattern row, purl row, pattern row, purl row... I didn't notice there was a mistake until the number of stitches didn't match what I was supposed to do on a given row. So then I had multiple rows to go through to find said mistake.

Fifth mistake - attempting to correct mistakes while mad at my knitting. This leads to poor tinking and ruthless frogging.

So after the crisis of yesterday I put down the Koigu and picked up my sock. Good mindless knitting while I made the heel flap. Then today I resuscitated Charlotte. Here's what I learned from all my mistakes.
1. Silk surgical suture make an awesome lifeline.
2. Place the lifeline after knitting the pattern row so that all your doing with it is purling around it. The makes it really easy to follow.
3. Count stitches after each pattern row. This way I find mistakes immediately and they are easier to fix.
4. Remain calm. Do not throw yarn, needles, or pattern across the room. This will not make the stitches magically jump into the correct place.
5. Do not attempt to multitask with this project. Accept limitations to brainpower. Full focus must be on the chart to avoid total failure. Do not converse, listen to an audiobook, watch a movie. It will only end in tears.
6. Listen to great (wordless because singing along will also lead to disaster) music. Today that was the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack. It gave me the patience of Jane, the strength of Lizzie, and the perseverance of Mr. Darcy, all of which were needed in this task.
7. Read and reread wonderful comments of encouragement from fellow knitters. Thanks, guys! I really needed that.

So Charlotte is back to her previous size, currently without mistakes, and quite pretty. All is right with the world.

posted by GamecockDoc @ 9:05 PM