I Just Spent . . .

. . . a week knitting two swatches. Two swatches. TWO swatches. TWO SWATCHES! (Oh, and notice my broken shades. Oy.)

I admit, the better part of those approximately 25 hours I was wearing pajama pants. The same pajama pants day after day. They were nice and stretchy. But still. A week spent on knitting TWO swatches is really just too much for me to handle.

I have not ever, in my recent adulthood--or should I say, my "mostly adulthood" since I'm well over the hill by now given my real age and the added years and years that this past week has aged me--have experienced frustration of this level.

When I was a kid, if I tried something, say, a cartwheel, and couldn't do it, I'd try again and maybe a third time, and if I still couldn't do it, I'd shrug and try something else. And these days, if I'm faced with a new challenge, say making French macarons, I try. I may fail. Then I consult and try again. Maybe I fail again. And I might even fail a few times more. If I continue to fail, I throw up my hands, chop the macarons, and use them as some sort of topping and move on.

And when it comes to knitting, and this is a confession of sorts, whenever I encountered knitters who were extremely frustrated, I usually shrugged and muttered, "Hey, it's just knitting. You know: knits and purls! Yo ho!" I guess I'm admitting that I just didn't understand and thought the frustrated people should react more like me, you know, so what? You're frustrated? Move on! Enjoy life!

After all this time, friends, I have met my match. The Lifted Increase(s).

There's a right-leaning lifted increase.

There's a left-leaning lifted increase.

Oh, and didja know that you can do these on wrong-side rows, too? Oh, and these have no resemblance in terms of stitch maneuvering to the right-side ones. We're talking apples and oranges.

Unfortunately, my brain just doesn't want to deal with them. And if you're not familiar, as I was not, they aren't those nice little make-one's. These are funky blankety-blanks--oh, I don't even know what to call them because if I say words like "orphan," "red-headed," "step-yadda," "left-toenail," etc., I'll be in big trouble. But, you get my drift. 

So, this past week I knit, and then I ripped. Then I knit and then I ripped. Then, I got highlighters and highlighted charts like a new college student. Then I got up and fixed a cocktail. I did this day after day after day. And then it hit me: I finally get it. I finally understand what knit-frustration feels like.

Whether it is a knit or a purl or a twist or a yarnover, or if you're reading a chart and end up with too few or too many stitches and are frustrated, friends, I understand.

I'm sorry for being so flip all these years.

(A colleague of mine, a long time ago, called me "flip" during a review and I guess, in all honesty, I am.)

Signed, 

 

Confused and Now I Understand and I'm Sorry Please Forgive Me.