I’m in a kind of rotten mood today. The weather is grey and blah, cool and damp, and a little foreboding. I feel sick to my stomach, and I don’t know why. And I realized last night that I have to rip out about 3.5″ of my Sahara because I was stupid.

I’ve actually made quite a bit of progress on Sahara in the last day and a half. Honestly, I’ve already knit somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the sweater. I was hoping I’d be able to have it finished and blocked by the time I go to Market with mom in a few weeks, and at the rate I’m going, that’s actually looking like a possibility.

Sahara WIP

Unfortunately, there was this one part that I wasn’t entirely sure about. After I had knit it, it didn’t look right, but I kept re-reading the directions, and at the time, it seemed like I had done the right thing. I figured it would all work out in the end. However, last night, I looked at it again, and realized that I had been misinterpreting the directions.

A major mistake, 3.5″ back

See that nice cast-on increase edge on the two front pieces? Yeah, it’s not supposed to be there. The directions said to cast on so many stitches at the beginning of the next two rows, and then again for the next two rows. Because the front is worked in two separate pieces at the same time at that point, I managed to read that as “cast on so many stitches at the beginning of the next two rows on each piece“, which ain’t the way it’s supposed to be done. I somehow got it into my head that each section was considered its own row (obviously wrong, but it was late when I was working on it). Oops. So now I’ve got to weave in a lifeline above that and rip back all that knitting. It could be worse - I could have realized this error several inches further down… But I still don’t relish the thought of ripping all that out.

Still, I’m really liking the way this sweater is designed - it makes knitting it fun and not tedious. Stockinette has a way of becoming very, very tedious and boring, especially when you’re knitting in the round, and especially when you’re knitting a plus-size sweater. But this design is interesting and keeps you on your toes. You start with a provisional cast-on at the shoulders, work down the back to the armhole shaping, and then put those stitches on a marker, picking back up at the shoulder and knitting down the fronts to the armhole shaping, at which point you then join the two sides. It’s all been stockinette so far, but because there are so many twists and turns, it’s not boring at all, and it keeps you on your toes (though apparently it’s too much for my poor toes to handle, since I made that stupid mistake…)

Still, I think if I keep working at it, I’ll be able to finish it in time for Market, so that’s nice. I’m also still not 100% sold on the color. I am, however, fast running out of options. I’ll continue to knit the sweater as it is, and I’ll try it on with a few things when I’m done with it. If the color still isn’t doing it for me, I may try dyeing it again (knitting up a sample swatch and dyeing that first, of course, since I don’t want to ruin the sweater.) Maybe a dark purple… There’s already quite a bit of purple dye in there (though it’s not obvious to the eye), so a darker purple might take well. We’ll just have to play it by ear. That’s kind of the fun part of knitting - you really do get to take everything by ear, if you like.

I’ve also made a bit of progress on my Get to the Point socks.

About 75% done with my Get to the Point Socks

I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve memorized the lace pattern, which is nice. And I’m continuing to love working with the Fleece Artist yarn. So nice! And seriously, the yardage on this sucker? I mean, really - it’s the skein that never ends! (And now I’ve got a new rendition of that annoying schoolyard song stuck in my head… “This is the skein that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started knitting it not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue knitting it forever just because this is the skein that never ends…”)

Okay, on that atrocious note, I think I’ll end this here and go hunt down some pepto…