Not So Fast

Well, that was the shortest vacation ever, hands down. At least, for this family: 20 hours. (that's minus the car time)

The good news is, we have a good buyer for our house, after 4 months on the market.

The bad news is we had to race home in order to figure out what we would buy instead, due to a very tight time constraint.

One wonders why it had to be at the start and not the end of vacation but so be it.

So guess what! Not only did I not finish those sleeves, I ripped what I had done, and started over. Here's why:

Without really thinking about it, I had automatically picked up sts for the sleeve (which gets knit down from the shoulder to the cuff) the way I always do: in a stitch. Problem is, here you want the continuity from the yoke to the sleeve to appear unbroken, and that half stitch of red showed. I know, it's hard to see in this photo, but believe me, it was bad. Maybe this shows it better>>

See what I mean?

That bad baby got ripped out and it has now been worked again to almost the same point, but so much better. This time I picked up between stitches, so the new stitch grows out of the previous one, as it would if it were really knit cuff to cuff. What was I thinking on my first attempt? I have no idea! Here's where I am now:

It is not a great picture as the crease between the two parts (which will block out nicely) obscures the nearly seamless flow of the pattern. (I didn't have enough hands to hold it flat and take a picture) But it is much nicer now. Good pattern continuity.

You know, I think ripping can be beautiful. Once you embrace it, you can go back and knit that thing (whatever it may be) so much better after the first experience. I sometimes get little bits and pieces of annoyances in my knitting, and sometimes they are "not bad enough" to merit ripping. But honestly, I am always so glad when I do.

Oh, the plan, by the way, is to go back out to eastern Long Island early tomorrow morning-- if we have a contract to buy by then. Looking pretty good but you never know.

As for finishing the sleeves before we return-- Linda called it-- too much time out of air conditioning, where we are going! I will give it my best shot, however.