Do-over

I just added the location to this post, as I do to all the posts, even though they all indicate I'm writing from Lakewood, WA, USA.  Too bad there's not a similar spot to put one of those little weather icons.  It's November in Washington State.  It's pouring and it's blowing.  And it's been doing that for the entire day.

It's now almost 10 pm and I've just finished reading ahead in the Master Knitter instructions.  I got to the section that asks questions about each swatch.  Eventually I'll have to sit at my Mac and type out some sensible answers to each one, citing resources and references.

Not right now because, well, I've knit one of the swatches wrong.  I didn't pay close attention to the instructions.  And this 'event' is a very real and tangible representation of at least one of the lessons I'm supposed to be learning:  to follow instructions.

Feeling quite silly, actually.  If it were a sweater, about now I'd be wondering why the sleeve turned out to be only 5 inches long when the pattern told me to expect a 10 inch sleeve.  Or worse, why the waist-length sweater I expected to create ended up as a bolero vest, one of those short things that bullfighters wear.

Here's a brief bit about what I did:  increase a stitch each side every other row.  So I increased one stitch each side on every right side row of the knitting.

Here's a brief bit about what the pattern said to do:  increase a stitch each side every OTHER right side row.

Do you see the difference?  A couple of rows to knit between each row of increases.  Groan.

I have this tiny little swatch.  Meanwhile I knit the next one and it's quite a bit longer, almost twice as long, in fact.

Here's what the pattern actually said:  increase a stitch every FOURTH (4th) row.  I got that, but read the other instruction with too much haste, and frankly, with too much presumption that I already knew what the professor was looking for.

I'll take a do-over on swatch 4.  Will show you the old and the new one in the next post.  Meanwhile here's a picture of the wrong Swatch 4 and the correct Swatch 5 (which is a lot longer, huh!)

Swatch 5 on the left -- increase each side every 4th row
Swatch 4 Error -- increase each side every Right Side row

If this were golf I'd take a mulligan, but I don't think the TKGA works that way.

I'm adding the label "mistake" to the list.  At the very least, when I do make a mistake I can also record what I did to rectify the error.

Thought for the day:  If only life were as simple as becoming a Master Knitter.