Bombola progresses

After literally ripping through the back of the Bombolo sweater, I suddenly shifted into slow gear and have made little progress since.

Here is the completed back, completed Thursday night or Friday morning early (already I forget, it seems like such distant history.)

I really didn't pick up my knitting again until Sunday on the train into NYC.  It is an ambitious train project, large needles, thick bulky yarn, and a chart to work from, usually I go for something which occupies less space.  Nonetheless I thought I was progressing well, and then I discovered a mistake that was just too much of a pain to drop down and fix (I had forgotten an increase 6 rows below, in the middle of a row no less) so I ripped and worked my way back up.  I got a little further and discovered that I had left a row out of my chart, combining a right side and a wrong side row,  I managed to figure that out, recalculating the stitches in my head, but I realized that the chart was going to be off by one row in terms of the repeats of one of the 4 patterns.  It is immanently possible to do this kind of thing in one's head of course, but perhaps not on a return train trip after a day in the city.  Once we were on the train home, in a car filled with a class of high school students who provided plenty of loud distractions, I decided that it was best to let the knitting go for a while.  Besides, I discovered yet another error, this time only two rows down, and thought there are times when it is best to call it quits.

I always have a book in hand as well on the train, and I settled down to read Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly, one of the few Conrad novels I have not previously read.

Monday night I fixed the chart, adding a new row at row 31, decided I didn't like the way one part of the pattern looked, ripped the knitting back to about row 20, changed the way I was doing one of the decreases on the chart, and started over. 

If I added up all the times I have re-knit rows 20 - 30, I might have finished the front of the sweater by now.

This time it seems to have finally taken:

A sunny day might be nice, for a sharper less fuzzy picture, but at the rate I am going, I might be done with the front by the time I have sunshine in the house again.

Comments

[gina L]

I think you were quite ambitious to try to knit a charted pattern on a train or in a car full of teens! The volume around teens is always ramped up to ten folds. If it isn't their music it's the screeching “Oh My God's!” and their attention getting laughter that send chills up the spine. I constantly have to put myself in a time out to regain my sanity around my 16-year-old son. Forge on Mardel, they say knitting is therapy but it certainly can make you pull your hair out in frustration at the same time.

[Mary Beth]

I could never wear this sweater: I'd definitely look like a street child, short, round with dangles things LOL! It will work well on your figger, though, I'd imagine. I hope you can either work it out or rip it out, time is important!

[Gina]

This one is really testing you and fighting with you! Yes, you were wise to opt for the book, although a noisy cabin of teens would drive me to such distraction that reading would be impossible for me! You have knitting and coping nerves of steal.