Unraveled

This morning, bright and early, I got to work on my sweater.  My task was to sew the shoulder seams and then pick up stitches to begin the collar.  I grabbed my knitting instruction book and read all there was to read about sewing seams on a sweater and proceeded to begin my sewing.  Hmmmm – not as simple as it shows in the book.  I made several failed attempts, then, with determination, I wove that yarn in and out, tugged, and a seam was formed.  Not perfect, not very good looking, but done. 

Next came the “pick up 54 stitches” for the collar.  After trying unsuccessfully to get an even distribution of 54 stitches, I referred back to the instruction book and discovered that I was doing it all wrong.  Carefully and thoughtfully I re-started and ended up with 56 stitches.  Oh well, what’s a few more stitches?  I began the knitting and after two rows discovered that I had missed at least two inches on one end. 

Out came the stitches and I started once again.  Very, very carefully I picked up 64 stitches – yes 10 more than the pattern called for – and started my knitting all over again.  After three rows, it was time to have a quick bite of lunch and head out to the knit shop for my class. 

When I got to class I discovered that instead of the seed pattern on the collar, I was actually knitting ribbing.  Oh well, so I would have three rows of ribbing and the rest would be seed stitch.  It would be a “design element”. 

As I sat and knitted, talked with the other women, and kept my knitting under the table, the teacher eventually got around to me and asked, “Why are you hiding your work Bonnie?” 

It was confession time.  “I have messed up royally” I said.  She got distracted with some customers and other problems at the table while I continued my knitting – until I noticed that half of my row was seed stitch and half was ribbing.  I told the lady next to me that if I were at home I would throw the whole mess across the room. 

Instead, I calming ripped out the knitting, and carefully pulled out the sewn seams of the shoulders.  I was back to the point I started in the morning.  Then I asked the teacher for help.  She got out a crochet hook and instructed me to crochet the shoulder together because that would prevent it from stretching.  I followed her instructions and finished one shoulder seam.  By then it was time to go home.

So my accomplishment for six hours of work on my sweater was a lot of unraveling and one decent looking shoulder seam. 

Lesson learned – Wait for the teacher to give instructions and demonstrations.  Another lesson learned – Ask for help.

The women around the table and the teacher are all very nice which made my humiliating bout with knitting today OK.  I survived, I learned, I WILL finish this sweater!