The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Wearable

I just love you guys. You silly, silly people. You obviously don't know me very well. "Just frog it and start over." You don't even know how that makes me laugh. I am NOT a frogger.

I don't know exactly why, but I absolutely HATE to, and probably won't, frog more than a couple of rows of knitting. Ever. I'm stubborn that way.

OKAY. Let's start with "The Good." Green Gable - she is finished, she fits, and she looks great from the front.

So, here's "The Bad." I'm about 4-5" into Green Gable, have just finished the lace section, and notice, about 2" up, that I've made a couple of increases in the back of the sweater. I really should have just left well enough alone there.

But, no. I'm telling myself it'll bother me, so I decide to ladder down and take out the increases. Well, there's no picture of that result, but let's just say instead of the increases, I now had a VERY loopy, loose spot in the middle of the back of my sweater. I tweaked and pulled and tried everything I could to try and spread the stitches out evenly into the rest of the work - but no going.

I should have frogged back then.... it was only about 2", but I cringed at the thought of frogging back through the lace panel - and I'm pretty sure I would have screwed that up, so instead I decide to ladder back down and put the increases back in. You can see what that got me. I obviously didn't have a clue what I was doing.

This is the point where I tell myself - just go on, your hair will cover it, you can block it so it's not too noticeable..... lies, lies, lies... but I keep going anyway.

Ugly. (click the pic for bigger, more life-like ugliness)

Now what. It's finished, and it's ugly. A couple of you mentioned frogging the entire sweater and just starting over. Now, that's just the funniest thing I've heard in a while. Start over... uh, no. See, by the time I'm about 3/4 done with ANY knitting I'm pretty bored of the yarn, color, pattern, etc, and am just ready to be done. To start OVER is unthinkable. Huh uh.... can't start OVER.


So here's "The ugly Wearable." I know.... there are some of you out there just shaking your heads, wondering how I could settle. What can I say? Am I pleased with myself?- not really. Even I KNOW and can admit that I should have started over when I was 5" into the whole thing.... but we know that I didn't.

So, I covered it up. I took votes. I polled the family. I got advice. Even the non-knitters admitted it was bad - when non-knitters notice and cringe, you know you can't ignore it. They also admitted I was a little far into it to go back now. So, I had Kaity crochet me up a little flower, and I stuck it over the bad part. We'll just call it a sweater tattoo.

A cop out? Yes.

But, if I had frogged and started over, then I would have hated knitting it. I would have got bored, and mad. As it is, I like it well enough, I'll wear it, I'll call it a design element....

I'll always know it's not what it could have been, but it's okay. I'm okay with that. I turn my back on what could have been, and carry on, on to the next knitting adventure.

I hope those of you who are real knitters and perfectionists (yes, I even envy you a little) still come back and check in on me from time to time.