Sunday, April 21, 2013

Dear Friends

I'm back tonight with more purls of wisdom:

  • When someone you love is critically ill, it's best to stick to Words with Friends or Dice with Buddies on your iPad while in the ICU.  Leave the complicated lace at home.
  • If you don't heed my words and are as delusional as I seem to be, when you drop a good 8 or more stitches of lace off the needles, don't be surprised when your stitch count is off.  You'll either pick up too many or too few and rarely the right amount.  Lace is fussy that way.
  • Whatever you do, when your stitch count and pattern are off, don't lie to yourself and knit an additional 1,000 stitches.  You have to stop and figure out what went wrong and fix it right then and there.  It's not going to get better on its own and with this kind of huge mistake, a repair can't be fudged.  It'll show.
  • Don't worry though because you heeded that voice in your head and put a lifeline in after every chart, right?
And that right there is the rub.  I have one lifeline two charts behind me.  Things were going so well that I thought I could get away without frequent lifelines.  When I completed one chart after the first lifeline, the thought crossed my mind I should place another, but sometimes they can be a real pain in the ass to do correctly.  It's time consuming to thread dental floss through hundreds of stitches without catching markers or going through the wrong part of a stitch.

Tonight I ripped out yarn barely thicker than thread.  Thousands of stitches.  Thousands. Surgery was impossible as I could not read my mistakes and had no clue how I'd compounded the initial error by attempting to fudge, pick up yarnovers that didn't exist, knit more than one stitch together with another...you name it.  I guess I wasn't in my right mind.  It wasn't reparable in the state I'd worked it, so rip I did.  Or should I say we?  Believe it or not, it took 2 of us nearly 30 minutes to undo all of those stitches including all of those nupps and beads.  On the bright side, seeing a lace project off the needles gives a knitter a good idea of how beautiful the project will be once able to knit again in a good frame of mind.

I'm down to the lifeline now, but I've worked 20 hours this weekend and I'll be heading back to Ohio tomorrow to lend a hand at the hospital and help pick out a rehab facility, so putting those stitches back on the needles will have to wait.

In the future I'll be using lifelines more frequently.  In the meantime, I have a message for myself:


Threading a lifeline takes much less time than re-knitting thousands of stitches.

21 comments:

Silliyak said...

When you are critical of yourself, you break your own heart, leave that for the rest of us if it's REALLY necessary. You're a good person, a human being. If you were perfect I wouldn't have anything to do with you. Take care.

Rositta said...

Ah yes Rudee, we are alll idiots at some point in our lives. My trick is to ignore it and so should you. Be good t yourself. I currently have the husband of a good friend in and out of hospital every other day and I only take vanilla socks to knit away the long hours. Take care...ciao

Jane said...

ooh, painful on all counts. hope things can be resolved soon, then you can concentrate on the other things. In the meantime, some mindless knitting is needed

Ruth said...

Take care my friend, hugs from this side of the world.

Ruth said...

Take care my friend, hugs from this side of the world.

Knitty said...

You're not an idiot, you are human. There isn't a part of our lives that couldn't be done better if hindsight had been foresight and we inserted the lifeline, avoided the congested highway, or didn't buy or make the cookies that would nestle in on already ample hips. Mine, not yours.

Finding Pam said...

Sometimes all you can do is put one foot in front of the other. I know it is hard. Sending you lots of love and support. Be kind to yourself.

The Bug said...

When I do something like that I just have to set it aside for a while so I don't take my frustration out on the project. Ugh.

Where in Ohio? Close enough that I could deliver a care package to you or your loved one?

Brenda said...

Your work is always so beautiful. I do what you just did all the time...that is why I can never finish anything pretty enough to share with others. My goal is be as good a knitter as you are someday. Under stressful situations...maybe just a simple garter stitch project would help calm you. (((((Hugs))))

Amy Rea said...

You're not an idiot. You're under severe duress. No one could expect you to think rationally.

NCmountainwoman said...

Been there and it's an awful place to be. Hope your loved one is on the mend and that you can forget about kicking yourself for getting careless about the lifeline.

Stephanie V said...

Yes, plain knitting - usually socks would have been my choice. However, if I was working on something special and really, really wanted to see it finished I'd have taken it, too. As for lifelines? I haven't used one yet. I know I should...I advise others - but me? Not that smart and I have been caught. Hugs to you as you go through this difficult time.

Mimi said...

I don't know what a lifeline is, which probably says a lot about my standard of knitting. A lace knitter I am not! cables are my thing.
Fab picture! Cute!

Unknown said...

I know you are hanging in there Rudee, you are some special woman. We all live and learn. Thanks for stopping by for our special day. Blessings
QMM

Unknown said...

Northern Ohio? I have a good friend in Port Clinton, who unfortunately has had much experience with rehab facilities and hospitals from Toledo to Cleveland. Let me know if either of us can help you in any way...artbham91@yahoo.com

much love to you all, my friend

Gail said...

Take care of yourself, the knitting will wait.

...and you certainly are NOT an idiot.

Celia said...

This is precisely why I don't knit lace at all. I'm distractable.

Unknown said...

Well, I think you need to always go back to the basics. Here is a good tip to always go by.

To keep from causing too much wear on your yarn, you should only strand four or five inches of beads at a time. If you're using a particularly delicate yarn -- such as a silk/wool blend -- you may want to string even fewer beads at a time.

Hope this helps.

Unknown said...

Looks like you need to go back to the basics. Here is a good tip.

To keep from causing too much wear on your yarn, you should only strand four or five inches of beads at a time. If you're using a particularly delicate yarn -- such as a silk/wool blend -- you may want to string even fewer beads at a time.

Hope this helps.

Unknown said...

Freedom of Speech is demanded. Please approve my comments.

Unknown said...

Join me in protesting this site...free speech is not allowed. Censorship rules. Bad, bad, bad.