Goodbye January

I had a scheduled floating holiday off from work today. One thing ... of the many ... that's been driving me crazy lately is the paper disorganization. We lost a change form for our home owner's policy recently. Though while going through stacks of mail, I found a change endorsement with the changes on it and never did find the form ... did we mail it?!?! I have no idea. So I went through the basket and stacks of mail around the house for 1 hour today and came up with these manageable piles left over after all the junk and unnecessary stuff was tossed. Yeah, these are the "manageable piles" ... the stack on the right are bank statements ... don't ask me how far they go back, but we've lived here for 2 years ...

Ishbel and I have been getting along well after one little tiff. For some reason now that I am past the "easy" stockinette portion and on to the lace ... its smooth sailing! I can't wait to block it. I haven't completed a genuine lace project before, meaning something that needs quite a bit of blocking for the pattern to show through. I think that's all it'll need though, if I tug this way and that it makes a big difference in the look of the lace pattern as opposed to the mangled mess you see here on the needles.

That would be a toy mouse you see on the floor. The cats are typically not allowed in here because there's way too much trouble for them to get into. They have the entire dining room and hallway to play with these mice (actually the entire rest of the house, but those are the two areas next to my craft room)... where do they always end up? Under the door and into my craft room. I think they know exactly what they are doing, because once its under the door they can whine and cry and stick their feet under the door and be pitiful until I finally give in and open the door. Then they jump up and run in here as fast as they can ... usually right to some yarn or other project.

I did it ...

I signed up for the Mystery Shawl KAL that I posted about previously ... and I purchased yarn for it. I tossed this one around for a while, and, most likely because I was still thinking about it by the time another payday rolled around and the sign ups hadn't closed yet ... well that answered the question for me!

My philosophy is this: if my mortgage is paid, my truck loan and insurance is paid and I am not in receipt of threatening past due notices from my utility companies, well then I can purchase some yarn. Maybe I don't have as much money in my savings account as I should. But, for all I know I could be struck by lightening tomorrow and die a horrible, crispy death ... so why not spend this precarious time on Earth doing something I love? Hey, if I am holding knitting needles while I am struck by lightening, the charge may enter one needle tip, pass through the cable and exit the other tip, thus leaving me unscathed, right?

I ordered Eos from the Unique Sheep in Moonlight in the Garden. This is the yarn that the designer used for the pattern. I have ordered from the Unique Sheep before and its great stuff. I really liked this colorway when I was looking at this pattern before, but the base was out of stock. Its not now! Telltale sign number two that the knitting fates are smiling.

I am opting out of the optional beading ... that's just begging the knitting fates to be unkind :o)

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Shortly after I posted this the Knitting Fates decided I deserved a good dose of smack in the face ... while counting up stitches I noticed this:

See anything wrong here?

What's This?

This is the first skein of sock yarn that I purchased. Well its the second I believe, the first skein was used for this (after I finally figured out how to knit socks properly).



The second skein I purchased was used for the first sock that I knit. I took a class and the sock was a horrendous thing. If I had any idea where it was I would post a photo here. Oh it was a sock, but it didn't fit my foot. I think in that class we didn't actually measure our feet. If the instructor looked at my shod foot and decided that was an appropriate number of stitches to cast on ... well she'd probably be right. I wear a size 8.5 sneaker. However, I have a long foot, that's why I wear that size shoe. But if you took my foot and another person's who wears the same size shoe, I bet mine would be much skinnier.

I've learned over the years that my feet are not average circumference in terms of the shoe size. And I compensate for that in my sock knitting. Hence why the first sock was such a disaster and the other pair you see here fits nicely.

Anyway, the other day I was in the basement - tending the wood stove I think and as I walked by my yarn stash down there ... yes there's an overflow storage in the basement. I decided to take a peek in the sock yarn tote. And what did I find?!?! Oh I remember that skein!

So I took it upstairs and wound it up to weigh it. Yes I know I could have easily put it on the scale as a regular wound skein, but it they sit much flatter and its easier to weigh them when they're cakes ... plus I like winding yarn ... its fun :o)

I found that I had 68g left. Well I know most sock skeins come in 100g and I usually have left overs because I like the legs short. So I grabbed two of my favorite pairs of socks and weighed those too. One came in at 63g and another at 56g. So I am quite certain there's enough left over here for a pair of socks!

I haven't cast them on yet, but will soon!

Baby Surprise Jacket v. 2.0

I haven't gifted a lot of items, and usually if I do its at Christmas or a birthday ... so wrapping those is easy. I hate to think, hey, here's this nice item I spent hours knitting for you, oh don't mind that its stuffed in a grocery or Wal-Mart bag ...

So I decided to do this with the last Baby Surprise Jacket that I made.



I'm really happy that it fits in this 4x4x4" box. They're fairly inexpensive and cute. I think that's how I'll be wrapping all the Baby Surprise Jackets from now on. And whatever else I make that fits in a box!

WIP Wednesday 1-26

Check out other WIP Wednesday blogs here!


Ishbel and I had a fight this past weekend. Ishbel was ripped and frogged several times. Most patterns do the increase yarn overs on the right side row only. Ishbel is on both right and wrong, so I have to go from the garter stitch edge to purl stitches with a yo in between. I thought I was doing something weird so I looked up how to do it correctly. Found that you just go on to the next stitch and don't put the yarn in position, this creates a yarn over ... well it does, but I knit pretty tight so this technique resulted in something that was hardly decipherable as a yo and very hard to knit into on the next row ... RIP. And I went back to my way of creating a yo and going around 1/2 time again so that the working yarn is in position for the next stitch.

I ripped it once because I saw I made an extra stitch ... had thought I dropped one and was being good by picking it up ... nope, just created an extra one. When I did this, I think I dropped one from the edging, because several rows later I noticed a stitch way down below almost to the beginning, at this point I hadn't knit too much of it, so I just RIPPED and started over again ...


Saroyan is coming along nicely. I like the colors of the yarn and the pattern is super easy. Its hard to photograph well though.


Just because she's so darn cute!

What the heck am I doing?!?!

I collect patterns. Maybe doesn't sound like such a big deal. I knit, right? Therefore I have patterns. But I collect them and spend more time browsing patterns and saving files sometimes than I do knitting. What the heck is wrong with me?

As I was thinking this (I'm having one of those antsy, crawling out of my skin, stuck in the house, freezing cold and hate winter days so bear with me) I thought, what you collected several shawl patterns right? And you've completed how many shawls? Oh yeah ... NONE! Then I looked on my computer and noticed I have 32 shawl patterns saved ... THIRTY-TWO. Really?

I don't even want to know how many socks patterns I've hoarded ... because at least there I've actually knit several pairs of socks ... I bet though that the ratio of sock patterns to sock knitting vs. shawl patterns to shawl knitting is probably equal. Say I've knit 7 pairs of socks ... yeah I'm sure I have 80-100 patterns ... definitely if you include the books I've got, which I've knit, oh yeah, NO patterns out of yet.

UUgghhh! I could be doing so many other things with this time, like knit, clean my house, knit, go through that stack of mail tipping over and ready to fall on the floor ... oh yeah and KNIT!

Recent Stash Enhancement

If you have never ordered from The Loopey Ewe, you're missing something! Every order is packed and wrapped and a little goodie added too (usually candy). When you first order, until you are an official "Loopey Groupie" you also get an extra goodie in your order. I've ordered enough that I am official :o)


I recently placed an order to get my hands on this Loopey messenger bag. How cool is this?!?!


Of course, I must order some yarn too, while I am at it. I've wanted to try Starry for a while, its got real silver bits spun into it so it sparkles ... and it really sparkles! The Lorna's Laces I just couldn't pass up, look at those colors!! And Zauberball laceweight in the yummiest green ... its so vibrant (hard to tell in this photo, I know).


The little bit down there is a Puppy Snip, tiny scissors, a little larger than a US Quarter by Hiya Hiya.

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Now for the rest of my recent stash enhancement.


A woman I work with and I often go in together on Knit Picks orders, this way we get free shipping, although one of us usually orders more than the required $50 to get free shipping. I got a set of needle tips and cables and this Knit Picks Chroma. Not sure what its going to be yet, I just wanted to try it out.


I am making another Baby Surprise Jacket for a man I work with. He and his girlfriend do not want to know the sex of the baby ... so I had to find something gender neutral. I was going to try and make it in Patons Kroy FX like the last one, but the only neutral color that it comes in wasn't in stock when I went shopping. So I figured I'd go to my local yarn store to find something. Sure, I'd probably pay more, but I'd enjoy knitting it and be happy with the color. The Mini Mochi in this picture is for the sweater.

The Lamb's Pride is for Saroyan. I've made a few things out of the variegated Lamb's Pride and the colors are very subtle and really very pretty.

Not sure what the Kidsilk Haze will be, when I went to the yarn tasting recently and tried it, I really wanted to try it out on an entire project. I only got one skein, but its got a surprising amount of yardage in that little ball at 229 yds. I figure its plenty for a nice scarf or shawlette.

Now to find a place on the shelves to put this stuff!

FO: Baby Surprise Jacket

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks FX
Needles: Addi US 5 (40" circular)
Cast On: 1/4/11
Finished: 1/22/11

I cast this off last week, but just put the buttons on and seamed up the sleeves today. I love, love, love this pattern. I'll be casting on another one soon!

The dog ate your gloves??

I got a message from my friend in England this morning that her dog chewed one of the gloves I made her and she desperately needs another pair. I hated knitting these gloves!


The pattern was a 1940s vintage pattern, which needed a little translation (by the way, she picked the pattern). What I hated about it, was that they were in fingering weight yarn at 9 stitches per inch, and there was a pattern stitch all over the hand of the mitten. A pattern stitch that needed to be adjusted for the thumb gussets so that it would look uniform and continue to work - and that's pretty much all the pattern had to say about it. I decided I was better off doing the thumbs in stockinette.

These gloves took me FOREVER to knit because I really wasn't enjoying knitting them. There's no way I am making another pair of these!

I'd like to do something in worsted weight so that they go quickly, but these look like a good alternative. These are pretty much the same thing, but in worsted weight.

WIP Wednesday

Check out other WIP Wednesday blogs here!

In reality I have several WIPs on the needles at the moment ... but I need to get to bed soon and don't have time to take all those photos. So I am just posting the WIPs that I've been actively working on this week.


These are just some simple socks, but they have been on the needles forever. I kept them in my truck for a while for "emergency" knitting where I would just get a few rows done while I was waiting for someone in a parking lot or if I took a break at work and went outside for some fresh air. I'd like to finish them up though. I started them last April.



This scarf I started about a year after I learned to knit and then it sat for a long time not being worked on. I think when I was new to knitting the prospect of a 77" scarf was a little much for me when it was only a few inches long. Now that I've completed entire sweaters, its not that big of a deal. I've been working it a couple of inches here and there. I would like it to be done this winter - its been in the works since August 2007.

Sunday Spindling

Last September I took a class on spinning on a drop spindle. Shortly before that I had purchased Knit Picks Turkish Drop Spindle (I wanted to get something inexpensive in case I didn't want to pursue it ... yeah right). I've watched the Knit Picks videos. I watched lots of Youtube videos. I bought beautiful hand-dyed rovings. Should have yarn by now, no?

I actually left the class with something resembling yarn, which was better than before the class when I kept dropping the spindle on the floor.



I understand the principles and the motions, but it still wasn't quite working. I know that when you are a beginner, of course it takes time to get good at it ... but why was this so difficult?

I recently purchased Productive Spindling by Amelia Garripoli and after reading the first few pages had an "Ah Ha!" moment and my spinning went much better. I wasn't pre-drafting well enough and I wasn't using the correct hands for the fiber hand and the spindle hand, making things extra akward and difficult.

This book is really good. I've only read section one so far which is a very basic intro to spinning. Section 2 is about different spindle types, different ways to ply yarn, finishing yarn and being more productive in spindling. I am going to hold off on that section until I get basic spinning down :o)

The book is spiral bound, which is awesome. Its so much easier to use a technique book when you can lay it flat and free up your hands.



My leader yarn that you can see in the below photo is Koigu PPPM ... now my singles are getting much closer to what I am trying to spin. Instead of rope you could use to tie a boat to a dock like I was getting before.



I did two sessions of spinning this past Sunday and actually feel like I am learning how the fiber acts, how much to draft and how much twist goes into the fiber depending on how long the spindle spins. You know, what spinning is all about.

Get off my back beetle!

OK usually people refer to it as a monkey on their back, but there was an episode of Dr. Who in which his companion had a large nasty beetle on her back. I think I'd want that off my back much more so than a cute, furry monkey! Anyway, back to what's on my back ... ok even I didn't think that one funny ...

I've been on a lace kick lately! I peruse lace patterns on Ravelry and look up other knitters projects. I look up laceweight yarns, I look at the laceweight yarns on my shelf. I try and match the yarns I have with patterns based on yardage so that I can get the most bang for my buck. I'm obsessed!

Last March, my LYS had a special event featuring Buffalo Gold yarns. If you haven't heard of this yarn before, its quite expensive, but for good reason. Its made up of Buffalo down and collecting it is time consuming and tedious ... hence the higher price tag. In addition, this particular yarn is comprised of 45% American bison down, 20% Cashmere, 20% silk and 15% tencel. So its got a lot of yummy goodness spun up into it. When you think about it, at 330 yds, its only $0.13 a yard (on sale, regular is $0.16).

When I went to this event, unfortunately, the shipment hadn't arrived, so all that was available was what the store had in stock. Since this yarn is so expensive and low in yardge I chose a laceweight skein. I chose purple. If I was going to pay this much for one skein of yarn, I better love it and it better be something I could wear. It definitely fits. Its a lovely shade of eggplant and it is a joy to knit with.


So what am I knitting you ask? Ishbel by Ysolda Teague. This pattern has been in my queue for a while and it takes 330 yds ... just what this skein is. I wanted to find a pattern that used most of the yarn, who wants left overs of a $42 skein? I found a link on Ravelry to one person who made this pattern with this yarn and she said she only had a tiny bit left over. Perfect.


I do have the Icarus shawl that I started last June, but it is so large, I don't want to knit on it unless I know I will devote enough time to complete one repeat of the chart before putting it down again. I know when I ended before, I clearly marked where I was on the pattern and it was at the end of the chart repeat of 23 rows. 23 rows isn't so much, but when the shawl continues to grow each row, it does get more and more time consuming to get through the 23 rows!

Saturday of Sniffles

This is what happens when you are sick and run out of tissues ...


I'm sure you all know - what's good for your behind isn't so great for your face! My nose hurts ... I feel like one of those kids on the animated commercial for Puffs.

I found a great podcast today while I was snuffling and sniffling called Fiber Beat. Check it out, he's got some interviews with plenty of people you've heard of. Most recent was Franklin Habit of The Panopticon. Right now I am listening to an older episode with Lucy Neatby.

Cast off the Baby Surprise Jacket today! 12 days for this project ... well I still have to seam it up and add buttons. Its for a man I used to work with, my mom still works there and she told me his wife is due in February and they are having a boy.

I used Patons Kroy Socks FX. I went on Ravelry and found I wasn't the only person who thought that the skeins varied wildly, even from the same dye lot. So much so that when I went to the counter with 4 skeins ... all from the same lot, I checked them all while I was looking at them, the cashier said, "You know you have different colors right?"

If you have never knit a Baby Surprise Jacket this is what it looks like when you are done:


Then you do some origami and it looks like this. Its pretty amazing.


And for some reason I thought I needed more yarn than when I knit one before (it was a different yarn though, so I guess I had some good reason to need 4 skeins of sock yarn). This is left over from the SECOND skein. But hey, I needed more sock yarn right?


Next baby I know of is due in August. They are keeping the gender a surprise. I really liked how the Kroy FX worked up, and there are some other nice colors out there so I will do that again. I am also going to finish up this blanket that's been sitting around for ages. The original kid I was knitting it for must be at least 2 or 3 years old now! And since this is done in gender neutral colors, its like I intended it for this one right?!


Getting this out of the way will free up some room in my WIP bin. Its really an ottoman, but serves nicely as a place to store WIPs.

Its all a Mystery to me ...

I am debating joining a Mystery Shawl KAL. The pattern is by a designer who's work I have admired in the past and its based on the Lord of the Rings (Super Nerd here). This particular shawl design is based on Galadriel’s crown.

I am one of those people that worries a lot about the colors I use. I don't just grab yarn and dive in. Often I knit in something very close to what the pattern picture shows ... because I already know what it looks like in that color. So, how does one pick yarn for a Mystery? What if I spend hours and hours knitting a shawl and find out I don't like how the pattern looks with the yarn?

This shawl requires 1200 yds of laceweight. I have three options in my stash.


These two are Knit Picks Shadow in Nocturne Heather or Cattail. I have 1320 yds in each color.

I find that I don't like the look of shawls done in striping yarns ... I usually like solids or tonals or kettle dyed yarns. However, last month I bought this:


How many colors can you pick out of here? There's at least 4 or 5 no?

Its JoJoLand Harmony Lace. I looked up projects on Ravelry and is it stripey? You bet your bippy it is ... why did I get this?!?! What was I thinking?!?! Oh I think I know, "Laceweight, 880 yds a skein and its only $10.00?!?!" That's what I was thinking.

So, since I will probably never know what to do with this yarn, would it be a good one to use for a Mystery KAL?

February in January

Well since it was a snow day, I figured I get some knitting done. I started this February Lady Sweater back in May of last year, and while it should be a quick knit, I don't know what it is about this one that's so difficult. Its not really, is the thing. The lace pattern is extremely simple, but I mess it up every other row. Then I have to tink back for a few inches and knit it correctly, then I do it all again the next time.

Also, for some heinous reason, I decided to knit it on bamboo needles. The yarn is sticking to it really bad and it makes for really slow knitting. At this point its too late to change needles, I'm afraid my gauge will change.



Time for another skein. And through the magic and wonder of the internet, here it is now wound up and ready to go ...



I tried it on briefly to see how long I want to make it and it is actually a little tight ... hoping once I wash and block it and it has sleeves that it works out OK. I checked my gauge and that is on. Stay tuned.

FO: Cabled Hoodie

I actually finished this one a few months ago, but never took a photo. Even these photos aren't that great, but its a Nor'easter outside so can't do it out there! That being said though, I tried to go to work, but the driveway isn't plowed and I can't get out ... even in 4-wheel drive ...



Pattern: Green Gable Hoodie
Yarn: Universal Yarn Classic Chunky
Needles: Addi US 10 1/2
Cast on: January 2010
Finished: October 10, 2010

What did you do?

This morning, in a moment of I don't know what, I somehow signed up for the 2011 Rockin' Sock Club. What's the big deal? You may be thinking, I'll tell you what the big deal is. Its not like I have oodles of extra cash laying around that I need to find things to do with. As a matter of fact, I put this on my credit card ... ouch!

Let's examine this for a moment. First of all, I am NOT a morning person ... not ... one ... bit. So why was I on the computer before getting ready for work, making purchases? Stupid. I never do that, I wait until evening after I've thought about it ... if there was even something I thought about purchasing in the morning.

Secondly, do I need more sock yarn ... No! I stopped counting how many were in my stash when I got to 100.

Third, and this is the big one ... I signed up for the club in 2009 and what's this ...



Every ... Single ... Skein

Every skein from 2009 is still here, not one project completed. Heck, they aren't even wound up!

There's a little voice in my head that tells me to do crazy things, you know the one, your's may tell you to eat things that aren't on your diet, spend more money than you really should when you're shopping, drink too much, smoke, you name it. Well mine signed me up for the sock club this morning! What did you do?

Monday and Muppets!

What the heck is that? Might be what you are thinking. Well, I've noticed one thing I really enjoy about visiting other blogs, is photos. And I don't have anything in particular to show today, so I found something in my craft room to picture. And I must say, I think I am getting the hang of the focus on my camera!

This is one part of a decorative thingamagig that I found at JoAnn's and just had to take home with me ... I think I like it a lot because it reminds me of a Muppet (oh and its purple too). Though I was sad that when I looked up that link, I didn't see Farscape as one of the shows listed ... unless I missed it. But Farscape definitely had muppets in employ on set. If you know what a Muppet is and you've seen Farscape ... well hey, then you're a nerd like me too!

I'm going to go knit on the Baby Surprise Jacket now, I feel startitis kicking in and I so want to start some new projects, but I'm being good and finishing up some first ... plus, I think I need some of the needles that are currently on projects in order to start the other ones.

Frolicking through the Stash

I am happy to report that I am at the halfway point of the Baby Surprise Jacket. This is one of the most fantastic patterns ever. Its by the infamous Elizabeth Zimmerman. This is now the third one I've knit since I took a class on the technique last May and ever since when I hear that someone is expecting a baby I squeal with glee that I have an excuse to make another one!



I am very happy with the results. Previously I had done this in self striping sock yarn, it looked quite pretty, but it did this weird thing on one side where the stripes looked like the wrong side and the other side looked right ... kinda drove me crazy. However, I decided that either I am doing it in one color, because I am not weaving in all those ends, or I thought a softer transitioning striping yarn may work. I choose Kroy Socks FX, which is a 4-ply yarn that changes color gradually, each ply being a different color throughout. It worked out great.

I picked up the spindle last night. I was working from some hand dyed roving that is quite nice, and making a disgusting, icky mess out of it. So I thought perhaps I should trudge through this sample collection I got when I purchased my spindle. Hopefully, by the time I get through this I am spinning better and can stop making a mess out of my nice rovings.



At this point I have only spun for a total of about 5 hours, 3 of those were in a class in September. That being said, I am a very inexperienced spinner and working on my technique. I figure since these rovings are so small ... all eight total 2 oz. its a good thing to practice with.



I collected up all of my cross stitch stash over this past year (found it in all kinds of places and various plastic storage totes from when we moved 2 years ago) and put it all together. Its hiding in the closet, but there's some really good stuff in there! Some of the kits are quite extensive and complicated, and some are little easy to stitch in a week types. I have a hummingbird one that is almost done, that I started eons ago and I would like to finish that before I go diving in here.

In my last post I mentioned the self imposed sock club and supplementing shawlette and scarf patterns with socks for some of them. I went through my stash today while I was dusting the shelves and generally cleaning the room ... ok so it probably would take a whole 15 minutes to clean the room, what I really did was fondle yarn for 2 hours and clean for 15 minutes of that.

Traveling Woman
Yarn: Yummy


Dane Shawl
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare - Dyed by Me

Pimpelliese
Yarn: Lang Jawoll Magic
I made one of these for the scarf exchange for the Knitter's Guild this past Fall. I got one in return, but the exchange was based on the Baktus pattern, which has a multitude of varieties to the basic technique. In the exchange, I got a plain one. Its beautiful and wear it a lot, but I really liked this particular pattern and want one for myself.

The other pattern I've got in this line up is Haruni I'm pretty sure its in the colorway pictured for the pattern. No picture here, I didn't print out the pattern yet, its 15 pages, so I'm going to print out only what pages I need when I am ready to start it.

Knit from Stash Club

I just checked back through my blog thinking I posted about this very recently. I had to search for a while before I found that there was a post from February of last year about this ...

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee or The Yarn Harlot, posted before about her "Self Imposed Sock Club" where she got 12 large zip lock bags and put everything she needed in a bag to knit a pair of socks. She did this to get through some stash yarn, avoid that common problem of buying yarn with an idea for the pattern in mind and then it sits in the stash and what you intended to do with it is long forgotten. She planned on knitting one pair a month, drawn at random.

I thought it was such a good idea, I went and did that myself, but I only got 6 kits put together before I was bored with the charade and clearly, as we can see, its sat there on the shelf for almost a year. I didn't even hide it either ... its right here on the shelf next to my desk at bottom right ... mocking me ...



Today I saw a recent post from Pink Lemon Twist, where she thought that The Yarn Harlot's idea was great as well, but wasn't sure she'd want to knit 12 pairs of socks in a year, so she supplemented this idea by adding in shawls and shawlettes that use the same amount of yarn as a pair of socks.



I thought, hey, I've been collecting a bunch of shawl and scarf patterns that use fingering weight yarn (as Pink Lemon Twist noted, it would be crazy to try and get through challenging, laceweight shawls in this manner) and I have oodles and oodles of sock yarn kicking around, so I could do that too!

Clearly as we can see, I do indeed have plenty of sock yarn kicking around ... and this isn't all of it. There's plenty more in the closet and downstairs in bins. I think I will make up 4 more kits for this year, clearly since I didn't even get through 6 last year and its almost mid January, I doubt I could get through 12 this year ...

Revelations - A Rebel Stitch

The other day I was knitting on this scarf ... its quite long at this point, a little over two feet long. The pattern is composed of an 8 row repeat with knits and purls. For example (this is totally made up for illustration purposes, so please don't comment that it doesn't make sense, it probably doesn't) K2, *K3, P5 to last 2 stitches, K2 and then something like K3, P5, K3 to last 3 stitches, K3 ... etc.

For the most part I was always on for the end of the row and had the correct number of stitches, if I didn't I could look back and see somewhere I had knit or purled too many and rip back and fix.

The other day I am short a stitch at the end of a row, then the next, I stop and look at the pattern and I have the right knits and purls ... hhmmm. So the little voice in my head says, its fine, just keep going, that missing stitch will show up eventually. Now its not odd for this little voice to say things like that while I am knitting ... but I LISTENED to it! I just kept going.

I took a break to get a cup of tea and when I came back, there he was, glaring at me, from several rows below! That missing stitch had jumped ship and was hanging out there in the middle of the ocean, treading water.

So I grabbed a life preserver (i.e. crochet hook) and pulled him in from the water before he was devoured by sharks, and plopped him back on the ship. Meanwhile, his two closest buddies decided to join in on the fun and jump ship too. One of them did an outright belly flop!

Then I thought to myself, are you daft?? If this pattern worked out for 2 feet and all of a sudden you are short a stitch, you don't stop and think something may be wrong? If you were at a busy amusement park with a few children and all of a sudden you turn and little Timmy is missing, do you go about your day, think, "Hey, that kid was annoying me anyway, he was eating all the cotton candy. I'm sure he'll show up before we leave and drive home 3 hours. OOhhh, the Neckbreaker, that sounds like a good ride, let's get in line!"

No, you would not, or at least I hope not, thinking that way would lead to investigation by a state agency and possible jail time, one would think!

Good Grief!