More coherent progress on the knitting front was made this week. The back of the purple cardigan is done.
Once I finished the scrolled diamond stitch pattern at the bottom, the rest of the piece moved quickly. That doesn't mean that I did not make errors. In fact I grow annoyed myself over that very issue. At one point I accidentally picked up two stitches in the middle of the back, from wraps that I did not completely transfer, creating two holes. I am not beating myself up about that as I had a pretty bad sinus headache that day and was barely able to move. I kept dozing off, even while knitting, and I eventually figured out I should not be knitting at all. Alas I didn't figure that out until after I was a few rows beyond the mistake. In my pain-induced fog, I told myself it didn't matter, and did not rip.
The next day I picked up the sweater and just blithely started knitting without even looking at my progress from the day before. I was almost finished with the back, about 6 inches above the armhole shaping, when I noticed the holes and had to rip back a good 5 inches of knitting. I am not annoyed with myself for the mistake. We are all human and all humans make mistakes after all. I am annoyed with myself for lying to myself about not caring, for that is exactly what denial is, self-deceit. I do care, and the mistake was both preventable and fixable. I can forgive myself for mistakes, but I can also learn from them, fix them whenever possible, and move on.
So often I fail; the point however is not about success or failure, rather it is about the journey itself. In the end however, it was only the ripping I resented. The knitting itself was, as always, soothing and calming. More time knitting is more time self-soothing. Much as I love pattern work and intarsia, I have to admit that there is something almost spiritually present about knitting stockinette, at least for me. Knitting is about living in the moment; yes it is creative and making something is a creative act, but it is also about being present in the process, present in the physical act, physical with the state of the body in space, as well as with the spirit, the urge to create. My mistake was a mistake brought on by denying that I did not feel well and was ignoring my physical presence, but not acknowledging the mistake was also a sign of disharmony. The pain is not in the ripping or reknitting but in the fragmentation.
I have also acquired a couple of small improvements to my knitting arsenal.
This little knitting tape bracelet arrived in my life in mid February, shortly after I started the purple cardigan. I have been wearing it consistently while knitting since its arrival. It is such a simple thing and it brings me so much joy. I usually have a ruler and/or a measuring tape around, but it often feels like I spend more time searching for either one than I spend actually measuring. This makes life so much easier, and it feels both handsome and functional.
The bracelet was part of my first box of goodies in a mystery-box knit-along. I intended to blog about the box contents at the time, but that was the week I felt overwhelmed, the week Poncho was ill, and so never got to it. I haven't started anything from that box yet, entranced as I have been with the purple cardigan. Perhaps I will post about both boxes when the second one arrives. In the meantime, I love the bracelet, and am more than likely to forget to take it off.
Finally, with this project I have started using the Knit Companion app and I love it so far. As I discovered and purchased the app, I also signed up for a zoom class offered by A Good Yarn in Sarasota, Florida, on using its various features. The class and the cardigan started simultaneously, and after the first week I was forging ahead, using the app to set up counters, highlight the appropriate counts and rows for my size, and adding notes and revisions to the pattern. I did jump ahead and figure some things out long before we covered them in the class, and the website has great support features, but I learned a great deal as well. As a person who tends to revise patterns to suit me, and often rewrites and reorders parts of patterns simply to make them easier for my brain to follow, I do think I will be getting a lot of use out of this app. The modifications needed for this pattern were small, but I see potential. I love the setting-up stage of a project anyway. Putting time into planning usually means less time making mistakes, at least planning mistakes. There is no accounting for, or apparently any way around, those pesky mistakes due to absentmindedness.
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