new on the needles

It’s that time of the year again. Time to look back. Time to gaze forward in anticipation. Let’s look ahead, first, and welcome 2008.

I did not remain sock monogamous to Lenore. I cast on the toes of the Salish Sea Socks, the December Rockin’ Sock Club pattern. The colorway is called Bella Coola / Nuxalk. It’s a Cat Bordhi pattern. The colors are my blog colors, and Cat gave me a nice little shout-out in the pattern notes. So what was I to do but cast them on?

But, I hear you ask gentle reader, what is that other unfinished strip of stripy cabled goodness sharing the picture with the Salish toes?

That was something I was hoping would be the last finished object of 2007. Didn’t make it. It will be the first finished object of 2008, though. I will tell you more later. For now, I will only say that the pattern comes from this book, and as soon as I saw it I knew that I had to knit it. When Tangle had the right yarn, the deal was sealed.

More later.

Also looking ahead: #1 Son left yesterday for a 5-week trip to Brazil. Yeah. South America. I was not allowed to go to the airport, because Moms are so lame at airports and stuff, you know. But he called me from the airport to let me know he was there. And he called me again to let me know they were ready to board. And he called me again to let me know that their flight to Chicago had been delayed. And he called again to let me know that they had landed, finally, in Chicago but missed the connection to Sao Paulo, and now had to stand in a really long line. And then he sent a text message to say that they had tickets on a flight leaving today. And then he sent a text message to say Happy New Year and that he was at a party with Chicago friends. I have not heard yet today. He has promised to call occasionally and maybe send an email now and again. Five weeks is a long time. Brazil is very far away.

In other non-knitting news, my old lady cat, Phoebe, has been diagnosed as hyperthyroid, thus explaining her weight loss and erratically needy behavior that was so odd in a crotchety cat that mostly just wants to be left alone — except at night, when a great deal of lovin’ is appreciated at bedtime. The good news is that it’s a condition that is, actually, curable in a fairly easy way. The bad news is that the condition may be masking chronic renal failure, which is not curable. So Phoebe is on medication to bring her thyroid levels down to normal so her kidneys can be evaluated. In all of her 15 years, Phoebe has never been sick or required medication of any kind. Since she tends to hold a grudge, I was not looking forward to shoving a pill down her throat offering her medication twice a day. But my vet carries this wonderful invention called Pill Pockets. Slip the pill inside the formed treat and smoosh the end closed, and the designated pet chomps it down. Phoebe loves them. So the only issue is keeping Kidd distracted while Phoebe eats her treat. Moo doesn’t count here, because she doesn’t like treats of any kind. She only eats cat food and yarn.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Now, looking back in farewell to 2007:

In January, I decided to buy yarn. And I kept that promise all through the year. So much so that I think in 2008 I will be a bit more restrained. Blue Moon suffered through their well-publicized bank problems. And my sock class was canceled because of snow.

February saw the Snake River Socks released into the wild, unfortunately, it turned out, with several errors. #1 Son borrowed my vacuum. My brain turned up missing in action as I tried to figure out the right number of stitches to go around a sock leg.

The first Rockin’ Sock Club shipment came in March. I resolved to knit socks only with my classes (resolution soon broken). My socks were lost and then found and, it turned out (via contest), may have been running a little underground resistance movement against sock abuse.

April opened with the Magical Moebius Festival in Newport. Knitting and food and yarn and food and Cat Bordhi and food and whales, and I knit a giant moebius (unintentionally) that 11 people fit into. And it was too far to drive 10 miles to my house, but not too far to drive to Eugene or Seattle.

In May I had the plane trip from hell. While I was in Miami, #1 Son called from Toronto to ask if I could move his car in Portland (it was towed). We lost Grandpa Barney. And I learned that I still remember how to execute a perfect slightly imperfect pratfall.

June found me proving my extreme dorkiness whilst meeting The Yarn Harlot. PDX Knit Bloggers were born (can’t believe it’s only been since June). The Clapotis That Never Ends… finally ended.

In July I visited Boston yarn shops (and my cousins). The PDX Knit Bloggers had their first meet-up at Knit Purl. #1 Son reached v1.9. I was both sorted into Ravenclaw and Simpsonized.

August started with a heelish experience. Sockapalooza 4 finished and I was spoiled nicely. Maia arrived for a PDX Yarn Crawl — on my birthday! I still owe the Bo Diddley sock pattern to several people. A gorgeous new Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, was published. My name is on page 22. And I was kept suitably humble by my first autograph requestor who said, I have no idea who you are but apparently you’re famous, so please sign my book.

I had more fun with Judy’s Magic Cast-On in September. I also learned that it’s a good thing to pay attention when one is turning cables. At OFFF I met a Rasta sheep and fell off my yarn diet. Hard.

October started with a very interesting computer rebuild. (lovin’ the new computer now, though) I attended the first ever Floating Knitting Retreat with Cat Bordhi and Lucy Neatby and had a wonderful time. I obtained my first ever MP3 player (knitting videos on my iPod!). We planted a tree for Barney and the Ravens landed.

In November, Tina destashed and knitters everywhere helped out. The rose arch finally gave up the ghost. I made a swift from Tinker Toys. I was thankful for finally finishing The Great Green Glob. Not so thankful when it turned out there was a dropped stitch requiring major post-blocking surgery.

I was sick for a lot of December. But I knit a scarf for #1 Son and started The Wings Of A Dream in Blue Moon Silk Thread. I pondered the future of knitting. I made carrot soup instead of carrot pudding. And I was given the gift of snow on Christmas.

Objects Finished In 2007:

9 pairs of adult-sized socks
2 pairs of baby-sized socks
2 iPod Nano socks
2 moebii of the right size
1 moebius bowl
2 baby sweaters
1 Clapotis
1 lace shawl
1 scarf
1 hat

22 finished objects total

In the queue for 2008 or currently on the needles:

4 lace shawls / wraps
2 sweaters
1 blanket
1 bag
1 hat
1 scarf
2 pairs of socks on the needles
a gazillion pairs of socks rattling around in my brain

Chances of finishing this list by 12/31/2008? We shall see.

Beach socks

Thank you to everyone who sent get-well wishes. I am feeling a lot better (and back to knitting)!

Don’t know what’s going on with the server PI is housed on. There have been issues the last couple of days. I have been in contact with my host, and hopefully things will get straightened out soon. If you have problems with the site, I can only suggest trying back in a little while to see if it’s working better. If you have continued problems for several hours, please shoot me an email.

I finally, finally, finished the socks I started oh, so long ago! I haven’t been able to come up with a good name for these, so I’ve dubbed them simply The Beach Socks. The yarn was purchased last spring at the Magical Moebius Festival in Newport (down on the coast), so they hail from the beach so to speak. And the colors are very seascape.

The pattern is the Coriolis Sock from Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. But, true to form, I wanted to try something a little bit different, so I inserted lace, cables and beads into the Coriolis band that winds around the leg.

I tried for the feel of waves foaming against the shore for the lace insert. I think I was fairly successful. Theoretically the Coriolis band can be any width. Mine is 7 stitches wide: two purl stitches to either side of a 5-stitch lace and cable pattern. I couldn’t decide what to do for a cuff, so in the end I just did a simple seed-stitch with the final cable pulled up into the cuff area. I really like the beads that I used, but I didn’t want to get too crazy with them so they are found only inside the lace on the leg. There are no beads on the foot, because they would not be comfortable inside my shoes.

I admit that these are a bit tight to get on, but once on they fit wonderfully well and don’t sag or bag at all. The coriolis band wants to pull the whole sock diagonally a bit. They feel better if I don’t fight with it and just let the leg twirl around a little. You can see from the pictures that there is a slight twist to the leg. If I were to knit these again, I think I’d use a different increase instead of the kfb, which tends, in my knitting, to be tight.

closeup of lace and beads

The closeup shows the seed-stitch cuff and the beads in the lace. The last cable in the cuff also sports a bead.

Strangely enough, I now have no socks on my needles — and that’s probably a good thing because I need to finish a baby sweater by next week.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool (70% merino, 30% Seacell / 115g, 350m per skein) in an unknown colorway — one skein with a tiny bit left over. This yarn came with a pattern called Bordello Socks
• Needles: two 24″ Addi Lace circulars, US#1 (2.5mm).
• Pattern: Coriolis Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One by Cat Bordhi
• Modification to pattern:
  • I used my own standard heel pattern, which is visually similar to Cat’s but narrower.
  • I attempted to make a longer, narrower whirlpool toe, but was not entirely successful. This is still not my favorite toe for fit, although I love the way it looks.
  • Seed stitch cuff and tubular (i.e. Kitchener) bind-off.
• Techniques used:
  • Knit toe-up, two at a time, on double circulars.

our off-shore meeting “room”

The gallery with the pictures should be working now. I’m guessing that those of you who couldn’t open it are using IE? For some reason Firefox wasn’t affected by my spelling error. Oops.

Anyway, here’s the tale of what I did last week, jaunting around the San Juan Islands with a bunch of crazy knitters.

I picked up my roommate, Tricia, along the way to Friday Harbor. Miracle of miracles — I was only about 10 minutes later than we had arranged, although I couldn’t seem to actually get on the road when I had planned. Traffic was light on Sunday. We planned to catch the 2:40 ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor, and we made it in plenty of time. At the ferry terminal, we ate sandwiches and chatted with a few other knitters while we waited. On board the ferry, we met other knitters. Hmmmm… there seemed to be quite a few of us all heading in the same general direction!

At the hotel, we were met by Cat and Lucy. Cat had little goody bags for us with Treking XXL, Frog Tree Alpaca sportweight (mine is blue), two colors of Claudia Handpainted, a sample of Crystal Palace Maizy, notecards, and a cool little folding ruler that folds in 1-inch increments; and an envelope with our itinerary; and a sign-up sheet for the ferry shuttles in the morning. I signed up for the early shuttle every morning because that would be easy to remember. But Cat insisted that as soon as I got to my room I should also write it on my itinerary to make sure that I didn’t forget, because time, tide and the inter-island ferry waits for no knitter. She was really insistent. So insistent, that I actually did write it on the itinerary when I got to our room — which was a pleasant suite with two bedrooms, two baths, a small living room with a faux wood stove (gas) and a kitchen.

Tricia and I ate at the hotel. The restaurant was pricey, but the food was very good. We both had salmon with a hazelnut pesto and mixed veggies that were excellent. The waiter was nice eye candy, but inattentive.

The hotel also offered free breakfast. By the time we left I had finally sort of figured out the waffle maker. Sort of. We shared the breakfast room with a bevy of construction workers who were working on one or the other of various projects that are springing up all over the area. And knitters, of course. There were knitters everywhere.

You will be pleased to know that I made the ferry shuttle every single day except the last. The last day nobody made the ferry shuttle because the shuttle broke down. A person had to be flown in from the mainland with the parts. But if the shuttle had been running, I would have been there on time. Everybody made it on the ferry on time all three days — I’m sure due to the sheer power of Cat’s willing us on board.

Island Wools

The first day started a little later, to give us all time to recover from our journey the day before. The inter-island ferry is an absolutely charming mode of transport. It’s a smallish ferry, and obviously well loved. Many of the tables hold half-worked jigsaw puzzles brought on board by commuters who work them during their regular journey. We took over one end of the ferry, which included a large area with seats on the sides that was perfect for a class, with tables available for overflow. You can see one of the puzzles in the first picture on the table to the far left. The table on the right was usually laden with goodies, lest we become faint from hunger and no longer able to wield needles and yarn. The first day, lunch was catered and included one of the best chicken salads I’ve ever had. And Cat brought home-made cookies that were just awesome and I think helped more than one knitter make it through the throes of unfamiliar knitting techniques.

Lucy taught on day 1. Lucy is nutty and fun and I learned a ton from her about double knitting and other techniques. As I said before, I’m planning on a pair of socks with little pockets. I love the pocket for a Nano idea. Of course I still need to get a Nano. But I see one in my future.

Pocket for a camera card is another good idea, though. In all of the vacations I’ve taken my camera on, I don’t think I’ve ever either recharged it or had to swap batteries, although I always carry one. And I can snap a lot of pictures before I need to swap cards. I don’t think I’ve every had to do that, either. I really do like my camera.

We floated around and double-knit until the ferry made its rounds a couple of times and arrived back at Friday Harbor in time for dinner. We ate in town at a fish-n-chips place that I would not recommend. It was the only food in the whole trip that I could truly say was fairly horrible.

After dinner, we all shopped at Island Wools, a charming little shop with tons of yarn - several of which I haven’t seen down here much. I showed admirable restraint by limiting myself to just a couple of skeins of Maizy (sock yarn from corn — whodda thunk it?) in Miami Nice (great name). Tricia and I went back on the afternoon of the third day, and I realized that there were a few other little things I needed, like one of the Lantern Moon black sheep measuring tapes.

Orcas Island and the Orcas Hotel

Day two was the long day. We caught the early ferry for a day of sock knitting with Cat. I started a pair of baby booties, and worked a little bit on the Coriolis socks. You can see the booties in the last picture. Cat is a fun teacher. She tells stories that really help one remember the techniques. I think I finally get why dividing the rpi into the number of stitches around the instep gives the length of the foot after the instep. I think. Just don’t ask me to explain it.

At Orcas Island we gathered up our belongings and disembarked for a wonderful lunch at the Orcas Hotel. We took over one whole dining room, and the Hotel served a wonderful sandwich and soup buffet.

I realize that this is starting to degenerated into a foodie description. But, really, this was what it was like: knit and eat and knit some more and have a little snack and knit and time for a meal and knit. Really.

I continued to work on the baby booties as we floated around Puget Sound on our little ferry. The ferry only made four stops: Friday Harbor, Orcas Island, Shaw Island and Lopez Island. We saw each multiple times, but never walked off at Shaw or Lopez. They look like nice islands, though. Perhaps another time I can visit them as well.

The baby booties are double-layered, but not double-knit. (hmmm… it occurs to me now that it might have been fun to try that!) I used Seasilk left over from LT’s moebius for the inner sock, and some Jaeger Trinity picked up at Island Wools for the outer sock. The Trinity has very little give in it and is very grabby. Knitting it on wooden needles was not as easy as I had hoped. My gauge was also a little wonky. But here’s hoping for a baby with rather large feet.

After some discussion about where to head for dinner, Tricia, myself and several others just ended up at the hotel. I had soup (very good) and salad (mostly cheese). We turned in early. Knitting is hard work.

blooming tea

The final day was a short knitting day. Cat explored moebius knitting with those who were interested. The rest of us kept knitting socks. Lunch was catered on board — chicken salad wraps. It was yummy. And there were Cat’s cookies to snack on, lest we become faint, etc.

We arrived back at Friday Harbor early in the afternoon. Tricia and I did a little shopping at Island Wools, where we were given directions to the best beach on the island.

Then we walked down the block to a gourmet kitchen shop — sorry but I don’t remember the name of it — where I did a bit of damage to my wallet. Oh, there was a lot of wonderful things there! I found a fig-hazelnut butter. And chalk licorice - a treat we had enjoyed on board - think Good & Plenty for adults. And they had some blooming tea, so I was able to procure some after having seen it on Bobbie’s blog and thinking I just had to have some. It’s so pretty. One of the knitters told a wonderful story about the beauty of blooming tea and some hard-bitten ranch hands that I will not attempt to repeat because I’m sure I would not be able to do it justice. I am enjoying mine a great deal. I’m so glad that I had a clear tea pot for it to bloom in. I’m not sure what the mermaid on my trivet thinks of having a very hot teapot balance on some tender portions of her anatomy. She looks a little surprised. But hopefully she is enjoying the beauty.

After buying out the gourmet shop, we drove all the way around San Juan island. Our first stop was at American Camp. As well as relating some of the history of the area and the best place to see, the ranger told us the scenic route to Roche Harbor — dirt roads, but good dirt roads. And it was a beautiful drive from there up to Lime Kiln Point. We visited the lighthouse there and stretched our legs.

Wescott Bay Sculture Park

From Lime Kiln Point, we drove up to Roche Harbor. We passed the alpaca farm, but since it was after 5:00 we didn’t stop, figuring that they were probably closed. I think we figured wrong, unfortunately, But we did enjoy looking at what’s left of the lime factory in Roche Harbor and at the old buildings. And the new condos and retail buildings that are springing up everywhere.

On the way back we stopped at the Wescott Bay Sculpture Park. It’s several acres of sculptures — over 100, I think. They are just scattered around in the field, in amongst waist-high grass and weeds. There are paths mowed through the field, though, so it’s possible to walk around and look at the art. I was particularly struck by the object in the picture above. I believe it’s called Feathered Phoenix, but I could be mistaken. All of those gears and arms and such move in the wind so that it’s constantly in motion and revolving and changing. I took a little movie of it also, because the thing was just fascinating. There were many other lovely sculptures, too. We didn’t get around the whole field because it started to rain, so we packed it in.

On the way back to town, we saw Mona the camel.

Dinner was at a very nice restaurant right next to the ferry terminal, where we all met as a group. We were joined by Cat’s daughter, Jenny, and grandson, Charlie. Cat was very much the proud mother and doting grandma — as she should be because Jenny is a lovely young woman and Charlie is a cute as a button.

The next morning Tricia and I were up extra early and got in line for the ferry back to Anacortes just in time to make it on. We stopped at Wild Fibers in Mt. Vernon on the way home, and I scored some very nice sock yarn that I will tell you about at another time.

And now you are up to date. Since arriving home, as well as fighting technology I have finished the baby booties I started on the ferry. I’m fairly pleased with the results. Hopefully the intended recipient will be as well.

Rowan Margaret’s Silken Slippers

The Particulars:

• Yarn:
  • Inner slippers: Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% Sea Cell / 100g, 400m per skein) in colorway Rose Garden a tiny bit of a skein left over from another project.
  • Outer slippers: Jaeger Trinity (40% silk, 35% cotton, 25% polyamide / 50g, 200m per skein) in colorway 431 (Sage)
• Needles: one pair 24″ Addi Lace, US#2 (inner); one pair 16″ Clover Bamboo, US#3 (outer)
• Pattern: Rowan Margaret’s Silken Slippers from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One by Cat Bordhi
• Modification to pattern: None. I actually followed the pattern as written. My gauge is a little different than Cat’s, though, and my slippers turned out bigger.

Seasilk Lattice Moebius

I am back, gentle reader, and what a journey I have had. I now have a working computer — and boy howdy is it fast compared to the old one. There were a few parts that just aren’t going to work, it appears. XP will not recognize my internal Zip drive, although the bios insists it’s there. It’s very old, however, and may have come to the end of its useful life. Or may have been harmed when the floppy bit the dust. Poor thing. Let us shed a tear. The floppy drive was fried — quite literally. There’s an amazing amount of smoke that comes pouring out when a floppy drive melts.

Note to self: This is not something that should be repeated with any frequency. In fact, never would be good.

I pretty much have software back in working order, etc. I managed to recover my mail, so nothing was lost there. Whew. Thank you to all of you who commiserated with me. I was tempted a few times to call Bobby’s hunky techie contact. But then I would have to explain what had happened. I’ve had enough embarrassment over this one, I think.

It’s all running again not a moment too soon, because in just a few short hours, I will be heading north for a Floating Knitting Retreat with Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby, and other wonderful knitters. Riding around on the ferries through the San Juans and knitting — what’s not to like? I think it’s going to be a blast! I will report back next week.

The first picture is what up to now has been called secret project. It can now be revealed as a lattice-stitch moebius in Sea Silk. (Note that this one is actually the right size!) This was a birthday present for my friend LT, who likes to wear pink. Although she tells me that she is branching out and trying other colors, so I will have to expand my LT palette.

ladybug, ladybug

This is a close up showing how the little ladybug stitch marker from J L Yarnworks’ Etsy shop. Isn’t that just the cutest little thing? I had a ton of fun watching it fly around the moebius while I knit, and every time it came to the front, I just had to smile.

I have not had much other knitting time. The Coriolis socks progress slowly up the ankles. I like the beads. Next time I’ll show you a pic or two.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% Sea Cell / 100g, 400m per skein) in colorway Rose Garden — Parts of two skeins with a goodly bit left over.
• Needle: 47″ Knit Picks Options circular, US#6.
• Pattern: Made up as I went along, with much inspiration from A Treasury Of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi
• Modification to pattern:
  • Not really a lot. I used a lattice-stitch pattern.
  • Cat suggests the I-cord bind-off, which I used.
  • I trusted Cat as to how many stitches I should cast on.

too long

Once upon a time there was a knitter named Frizzylocks who loved Cat Bordhi’s Cables & Corrugations Socks and wanted to knit them more than anything in the whole, wide world.

Now Frizzylocks was one of those knitters who never follows patterns. She always changed something, or tweaked something else, or just plain threw the pattern away and did her own thing. But because Frizzylocks loved the Cables & Corrugations Socks so much, she really wanted to knit them just exactly the way the pattern said to.

So she started knitting, and she knit and she knit and she knit. She followed all of the directions until she was ready to turn the heel, and then she tried the socks on. And, although the gusset seemed a bit wide at the top, for the most part they fit pretty well and the length was great. Smiling happily, she began knitting again, following the heel instructions.

What Frizzylocks hadn’t realized when she tired the socks on was that the heel portion of the pattern would add an entire stitch-pattern repeat, making the socks longer, and the set-up for the sock would add quite a few more increases and make the heel even wider.

When the heel was finished, Frizzylocks tried the sock on again. It was too long. It was way, way too long. And the heel was way wide because Frizzylocks has skinny heels. And Frizzylocks was no longer smiling.

too short

So that’s enough third person fairytale. Because this, unfortunately is most decidedly not a fairytale of any kind. The sock was way too long. The heel was way too wide. There was just no getting around it. You can see it in the first picture up there. It was huge.

The width through the foot was OK, though. And that was certainly nice. You will recall that when I first knit the toes I did not trust the pattern and added extra increases and the toes ended up way, way too wide. I think these socks hate me. And really, I like them a lot and I am trying not to take it personally!

So, anyway, I frogged the heel.

I frogged the heel at knit night at Tangle, and there were gasps all around as I took them off the needles. But it doesn’t fit, I explained. Alice tried the glass slipper red sock on. It fit her. Alice offered to take them off my hands (or feet, as the case may be) once completed. I politely declined. Alice started knitting on a gorgeous basketweave sweater that’s been a UFO for a couple of years now because she’s not feeling the love. I suggested that sweater might be swapped for socks. Alice politely declined.

So I frogged the heel and ripped back two pattern repeats — the one created during the heel set-up, and one extra for good measure. My plan was to knit my standard heel, which is narrower. I really like Cat’s heel - I think it’s lovely and brililant - but it doesn’t fit well on my skinny heels. So I felt forced - forced, I say - to deviate from the pattern. (I think Cat would understand.)

There’s something about the phrase for good measure that does not bode well when my pursuits are concerned. You will, perhaps, remember the never-ending moebius? The one that 11 knitters fit into? Yeah. I cast on just a few extra stitches for good measure.

You can see from the second picture above that the heel is not too wide. But the sock is also now too short. Way too short. I should have only ripped out one pattern repeat, not two. < sigh >

just right

Third times a charm, gentle reader.

I knit one more pattern repeat. Then I stopped and worked my standard heel. It’s not exactly like Cat’s heel, but it’s visually similar. Actually, the flap is pretty much the same, but the turn is different.

And, as you can see from the third picture, this one is just right! The heel fits, it’s the right length. And Frizzylocks is very happy.

Now to do the same thing on the other sock, and I will be back in business heading up the legs. I may need a few extra stitches on the ankles once I get the cable going up the back. But I’m not worried about that at all since I know from experience that increases are really easy to hide in the purls along the edges of cables.

I almost titled this post Why I Don’t Follow Patterns, but then I went into my little fairytale instead.

But that did send me off on a little navel-gazing tangent — Why don’t I follow patterns? Is it just that I’m a rebel? Or is it fit? Or process? Or maybe all of these? Probably the last. But following the Cables & Corrugations pattern has been difficult, even though I fully intended to follow it. I just keep wanting to stray, and the heels gave me the perfect excuse.

What about you, gentle reader? Do you follow patterns? Why or why not?

Are you more enamored of the process of knitting itself, or is it the finished objects that you create that keep you coming back for more?

Would you prefer to knit objects similar to those you have knit before, or would you rather knit something completely different?

When things go wrong — patterns have errors, the swatch lied, you loath the way the yarn is knitting up, the thing looks sucky on you — what is your reaction? Are you angry at the time lost or the pattern author? Are you discouraged or invigorated? Do you want to fix it at any cost and make it work, or bury it 20 feet deep and never see it again?

As I said, I seem to be in a period of thoughtful introspection, so I would love to hear what you think. There are no right answers or wrong answers - and there are probably different answers for every knitter. If you don’t want to answer in comments, email me at Judy at persistentillusion dot com. I really would like to hear from you…