I've Only Just Begun

...to knit. And I'm a very careful knitter. Not because I'm a very careful person by nature, but simply because in being the novice knitter that I am, I haven't a clue what to do if I should make a mistake (horrors)!

Yesterday I had gone to my lifeline knitting site, knittinghelp.com, to check out some enlightening videos, and I noticed for the first time that the site had a forum. Peeking in, I found that members were working on a knit-along for the month of December, and because the result was to be a surprise (you had to knit it to discover what it was), I was intrigued enough to try it! The pattern was simple, simple, simple for even the most inexperienced knitter (my status), so I copied the pattern and began to work on it.

It was coming out perfectly! All through the afternoon I worked on it, and by dinnertime I was more than halfway through. Very proud of myself, I put my work away to be picked up later.

Later... about 1:00AM-ish later... and in denial about how sleepy I really was, I thought that I had a good hour left before I had to sleep and decided to pick up my knitting again. Big mistake. Inching closer to the finish, I was about 3/4 done with my little surprise project, my sleepy brain a little too unfocused for the perfection I demand of myself, when to my absolute horror I noticed that a stitch on the latest completed row was all askew!! Arrrrgh! I had no idea what went wrong with the poor twisted stitch, and even worse, no idea on how to fix it. And now there was an extra stitch more than there should have been. :(

Panic mode! I carefully removed all the stitches to the other needle until I got to the stitch. I tried to slip it off the needle to change it's position, tried to loop it through the stitch under it, tried everything I could think of... and as I was so diligently trying to right the wrong, trembling, hesitant, uncooperative fingers and all, I completely neglected the stitches on the other needle... which were silently slipping off the needle point, one by miserable one. Waaaah!

I did the only thing I was capable of doing at that point. I carefully laid both needles on my nightstand, put away all my knitting paraphenalia with a sinking heart, having decided to try again in the morning. A good plan, but in the end I couldn't sleep and with my little project in hand I headed for my computer, this time to do what I should have done in the first place. I logged on to knittinghelp.com and found the salvation of a video to show me the way. And after two unsuccessful attempts I managed to rip out several rows of my oh-so-carefully worked knitting to a place where my work was again on my needle properly! Rejoicing! I worked several more rows to reassure myself that all was well...and with a much lighter heart I was able to finally go to bed...at about 3:00AM. :)

File this under: mishaps ;)