Giving Up: A Knitting Story

It isn't often I give up on a project. Often, I would rather finish a project than rip out mistakes and try again. Sadly, this time I just didn't have it in me to keep working on a shawl project.

Why? Mostly because I have a real problem following directions blindly. I know, why am I fooling around with mystery projects if I'm not willing to follow directions blindly? Because I like to challenge myself. This time, it didn't work out.

I jumped on the bandwagon when Stephen West put out his latest mystery knit along Speckle and Pop. I even knit a fade swatch to make sure I was close on gauge, something I rarely do when knitting shawls. I figured it would be a good idea because Stephen likes to build one section onto the last and this was my first real foray into a fade.

I started with great excitement.

I quickly fell behind and had not quite finished clue number one when clue number two hit the streets.

I definitely wasn't ready when the last clue came out and I was still struggling with clue number two. In the end, I ripped out clue number two and decided clue number one was good enough. I don't like to admit defeat but sometimes that is just what it is.

I learned more about what I like and don't like about knit construction. I learned I really like to play with short rows and the fade thing is fun. I'm not a fan of closing the gaps on short rows when I think I know how to do it better. I'm not a fan of stitch patterns that have a knit one, purl one, row. I would rather not knit at all than have to (k1, p1) on every wrong-side row.

Did I learn a thing or two about knitting? Absolutely! I am I unhappy with the result? Not really. I learned a couple things about myself as a knitter and that is always a good thing.

Am I discouraged? Absolutely not. I think I'm going to try to make Stephen's Royally Striped next. That's ambitious. Besides, I still have all this yarn.