Raveling in the Twilight Garden

So after a lot of swearing, frogging, literal knot tying, and screaming that crochet is STILL some kind of black magic, I succeeded in making one of those cute little curlicue things that are apparently all over pinterest.  I wouldn’t know; I mostly go there for hairstyle how-tos.  But since Rav doesn’t appear to have a simple note-taking function for things that aren’t truly active projects, I’m making notes here (because this tumblr is synced to my Rav) as to what I’m doing with this project in case I put it down for half of forever, as I often do.

This past weekend was the Ragnesfolke Midwinter, AKA Penn Ice, AKA Pei and Greg’s January party.  Having been encouraged previously not to leave my fiber projects home, I packed some stuff for fidgeting.  I deliberately did not pack K’s blanket because I feared what would happen to the squares if I happened to think it was a good idea to knit intoxicated (I never did, but given how much trouble I have typing with a light buzz, it probably would’ve proven messy).  Besides the blanket, the closest thing I have to an active project is this one, which I’d frogged, YET AGAIN, and allowed to just sit.  I was quite done.  So I packed this project, along with a skein of white yarn and my crochet hooks.  Pei crochets, and there are plenty of other folk of varying fiber practices, so I was sure I could either get someone’s help with this or learn to crochet.

Day I of the project was a total bust.  I lost count of my rows somewhere (being unaccustomed to actually USING my row counter, it’s not super helpful yet), frogged a row and tried to pick up where I should’ve been, only to find that I probably HADN’T lost track of the row, I only THOUGHT I did...  So I wound up frogging the whole thing to be sure. It was pretty late when I started, so I turned in and decided I’d start over today.

Day II was originally off to a better start.  I was really conscious of keeping track of what row I was on and being sure to update my row counter as necessary.  On finishing row 7, I stuck a stitch marker in the project in case I needed to frog the cable row with the idea that it would save me from frogging too much (more on why this didn’t work in a moment).  I managed the cable row without too much issue, though I have a newfound appreciation for my one-time boss’s observation that I work really tight; my natural tension is REALLY poorly suited to cabling.  But I managed anyway.  Again, on finishing the cable row, I set a stitch marker in case I needed to frog, being excessively proud of myself for successfully finishing the cable row, and not remembering that THAT was not what I botched that first time when I threw the project so hard that the needles popped out of it.

(As an aside, my first attempt at cabling was the Irish Hiking Scarf from which this project is derived.  When I say I threw it, I’m not speaking figuratively.  I was sitting on the couch in my apartment, when I realised I’d botched... something, I’m STILL not sure what, I was so frustrated with other things in my life, and had been knitting to cope with that, that I threw the project, needles still mid-row, across the room.  It sailed through the open doorway, hit the side of my futon bed, and ejected both needles from the project, where they clattered loudly to the hardwoods.  The fact that I’m even cabling again at all is a big step for me)

What had caused that hissy fit, or, well, the last straw, I should say, was that, after my cable row, I had an additional stitch I couldn’t account for.  I’m not sure how it happened, but I did it again this time.

Oh-ho, I thought to myself, This time I am prepared! But alas, I did not think through my brilliant plan adequately.  Frogging the project to the desired point, but not beyond, went just as planned.  The trouble was that as I looked to thread the needle back through the preserved stitches, I had no idea how to reconcile my pattern with which way those stitches should’ve faced on the needle.  So I’m back to square one again.