Monday, July 16, 2007

Grrrrrrrrr....

I noticed something...check out this photo from last week's progress:

Mystery Stole progress

Do you see it? It's not stretched out, so it's maybe kinda tough to see. But look:

I've asked for permission to provide a visual to help you. That up there is my stole. This is Adelle's (photo and knitting credits, natch):

Adelle's stole

Gorgeous, no? (And yarn choice leads to still further proof that we are the same person; if it weren't for the fact that my stole has a big ol' mistake in it, these two would be hard to tell apart.) Something had looked slightly off in my stole, and so I pulled this back up, and that's when I was sure.

For the true comparison and confirmation:
Somethin' what gone wrong Aha!

See it now? Granted, hers is all nicely pinned and the stitch definition is clear, but even all scrunched up and pitiful-looking, you can totally make out that huge glaring something-done-gone-wrong in the middle of my stole. Things aren't lining up, and I never even noticed the goof (how do you screw up lace without screwing up stitch counts?) And since I have progressed well past where I was when I took that first photo up there (I've completed clue #2 and am into clue #3,) there is virtually no chance I am going to frog 80 rows to fix this little glitch. Eh, not even virtually no chance; there is absolutely and completely no chance. Instead, I'm going to let its little wonky eye stare at me, crooked and leering, for the whole rest of my life.

And I'm going to not care. (Wrong.)

And I'm going to not let it bother me. (Still wrong.)

And I'm going to finish it and place a shawl pin carefully over that spot every time I wear it. (Now I'm on to something.)

Thankfully, it's not huge, glaring, godawful; it's not like I missed twelve yarnovers in a single row. It's a little goof that's not immediately noticeable to anyone but me. There's always the added bonus of only knowing like four knitters in person; no one else would EVER pick up on this. (You'd be surprised how many little errors I can brush off by using the ol' nobody-knits-but-me excuse. Will the mistake bug me? Maybe. Would frogging 80 rows bug me even more? Ohhhhh yeah.) And I know the whole happy story of the Aztecs (Mayans?) and their placing intentional mistakes in handmade goods so as not to piss off the gods by creating perfection, but I'm interested in flawless knitting. I would like to offend the Lord with my lacework.

But! On the bright side, I made it through Clue #2 without having to tink one. single. row. That's a phenomenal achievement, as far as I'm concerned; not one time did I come up with too few or too many stitches at the end of a row. And now that I've thoroughly jinxed myself...