Knitting meltdown
I want to shoot myself in the head at this point.
I know, I know...melodramatic, considering it has to do with, of all things, knitting. But...
I've been working on this Aran sweater pattern for goddamn near a decade at this point. I did the front piece, started working on the back years and years ago, ended up setting it down and picking it up a few times over the years and not getting a whole lot done. Picked it up again last year, got to the armhole shaping part on the back piece, screwed some stuff up, dropped stitches, lost count, didn't know where I was for a while...thought I'd straightened it out.
It's a series of seven panels all strung together. Two of them are next to each other and repeat at the same rate and are symmetrical. The third panel is also symmetrical, but repeats at a different rate than the previous two. And then the central panel, the longest and biggest of the lot (the one that all the rest are symmetrical on either side of, repeats at yet a different rate than either the first two or the third. I can't keep that shit straight, and while I was doing the front piece, I actually wrote it out as I went along...every single goddamn row. And I was stupid and didn't put it in a notebook...I wrote on sheets of paper and then backs of some of those sheets, and they're not really in order. I think I happened to be somewhere away from home and ran out of paper or something and that's what started me writing on the backs. Should have had a goddamned notebook is what I should have done. But I managed to get that front piece done years ago, and it looked pretty good.
Well, now I get to the end of the armhole shaping on the back piece, finally, and it's clear the decreases aren't matching up...and I have no idea why. When I compare it to the front piece, the front is far narrower...I should have 100 stitches on the needle at this point, I've got like 110 or so...I'm so enraged right now that I can't remember the actual count. All I know is that THERE ARE TOO MANY GODDAMN STITCHES ON THE NEEDLE AND I'VE NO IDEA WHAT I DID WRONG.
All that work for pretty much nothing...I'd rip it out and start all over again on the back piece, but it's been so long that I'm not sure I even understand the overall theory of the thing anymore, because I cannot even figure out what I did wrong, nor can I remember what I really did on the front. (The front also has a bunch of stitches on a stitch holder for the neckline, and that part isn't in the instructions for the back...only a armhole and shoulder shaping.) I was thinking maybe I could try to eyeball it and decrease until it looks like the front...it'll be misshapen, but at least I'll get the fucking thing done at long last. Except I will probably screw that up, too. And even if I don't, I have no idea how too knit the sleeves. That was one of the reasons I think I stopped in the first place for so long, because I looked at the sleeves repeatedly and just could not make hide or hair of what was supposed to be going on in the directions, not to mention how to finish off the neckline or sew the sleeves to what will most assuredly now be misshapen armholes and shoulders if I were to try to fix it at this point and even got that far.
Part of me wants to give up, but all that work, and all that gorgeous mallard-colored yarn... This foe was beyond my what were even then meager knitting skills, but I thought I'd be able to muddle through. After all, before that I'd managed to knit a sweater as my first completed knitting project. Granted that sweater DIDN'T HAVE SLEEVES. But I did the circular needle thing and everything, figured it out on my own, and didn't die.
FUCK!!!!
I know, I know...melodramatic, considering it has to do with, of all things, knitting. But...
I've been working on this Aran sweater pattern for goddamn near a decade at this point. I did the front piece, started working on the back years and years ago, ended up setting it down and picking it up a few times over the years and not getting a whole lot done. Picked it up again last year, got to the armhole shaping part on the back piece, screwed some stuff up, dropped stitches, lost count, didn't know where I was for a while...thought I'd straightened it out.
It's a series of seven panels all strung together. Two of them are next to each other and repeat at the same rate and are symmetrical. The third panel is also symmetrical, but repeats at a different rate than the previous two. And then the central panel, the longest and biggest of the lot (the one that all the rest are symmetrical on either side of, repeats at yet a different rate than either the first two or the third. I can't keep that shit straight, and while I was doing the front piece, I actually wrote it out as I went along...every single goddamn row. And I was stupid and didn't put it in a notebook...I wrote on sheets of paper and then backs of some of those sheets, and they're not really in order. I think I happened to be somewhere away from home and ran out of paper or something and that's what started me writing on the backs. Should have had a goddamned notebook is what I should have done. But I managed to get that front piece done years ago, and it looked pretty good.
Well, now I get to the end of the armhole shaping on the back piece, finally, and it's clear the decreases aren't matching up...and I have no idea why. When I compare it to the front piece, the front is far narrower...I should have 100 stitches on the needle at this point, I've got like 110 or so...I'm so enraged right now that I can't remember the actual count. All I know is that THERE ARE TOO MANY GODDAMN STITCHES ON THE NEEDLE AND I'VE NO IDEA WHAT I DID WRONG.
All that work for pretty much nothing...I'd rip it out and start all over again on the back piece, but it's been so long that I'm not sure I even understand the overall theory of the thing anymore, because I cannot even figure out what I did wrong, nor can I remember what I really did on the front. (The front also has a bunch of stitches on a stitch holder for the neckline, and that part isn't in the instructions for the back...only a armhole and shoulder shaping.) I was thinking maybe I could try to eyeball it and decrease until it looks like the front...it'll be misshapen, but at least I'll get the fucking thing done at long last. Except I will probably screw that up, too. And even if I don't, I have no idea how too knit the sleeves. That was one of the reasons I think I stopped in the first place for so long, because I looked at the sleeves repeatedly and just could not make hide or hair of what was supposed to be going on in the directions, not to mention how to finish off the neckline or sew the sleeves to what will most assuredly now be misshapen armholes and shoulders if I were to try to fix it at this point and even got that far.
Part of me wants to give up, but all that work, and all that gorgeous mallard-colored yarn... This foe was beyond my what were even then meager knitting skills, but I thought I'd be able to muddle through. After all, before that I'd managed to knit a sweater as my first completed knitting project. Granted that sweater DIDN'T HAVE SLEEVES. But I did the circular needle thing and everything, figured it out on my own, and didn't die.
FUCK!!!!