Frogging, crying, and starting over

Woke up this morning all excited because I had received the rest of the pattern for my KAL I am doing with one of the yahoo groups I am in. I couldn't wait to get started. I waited though, for my man to wake up. I didn't want my muttering and cursing to wake him up. I tend to cuss up a storm as I am learning a new pattern. I shouldn't have waited. Or maybe I should have waited longer. I don't know if it would have made any difference though.

"What? Why should you have waited?" you are probably asking right now. Well, let me tell you. I messed up my  project. I started off ok, but I messed up and had to back track a little. I don't really know how, though I have seen it done recently. It worked out okay, but then, a little later, I messed up again. Worse this time. I tried to back track again, but there were too many yarn overs and increases and I guess I got confused. Next thing I knew, I had a big mess on my hands. I ended up frogging the entire thing. Yep, you heard me right. I have frogged my entire Crowned Glory scarf.

I thought I was going to cry. Honestly considered it. I didn't though. Why waste my tears on what should be a good learning experience. Every step I take in learning to knit is progress, even if it doesn't seem to be at the moment I am ripping out all of those stitches that took me so many painstaking hours.

So, I decided to start over. I messed up on the second row! I have now started over yet again and am going slowly. I will post some pictures of my new progress tomorrow, when I have more to show. Meanwhile, I did a few more rows on my double knitted hat. I decided to add a couple of single row stripes to break up the monotony of the hat. I think it turned out ok. I am still having troubles with my stripes lining up right. I have no idea how I am getting the lopsided when I am starting at the beginning of the row and ending at the end. Oh well, just something else to learn. :-)

I have also accomplished, since the last post, forty-two whole cross stitches on my new project. Wow, this 32 count linen is kicking my behind and making me blind. I usually work on 14 count Aida, so I am used to being able to just fly across rows and see pretty good progress in an hour. Not anymore! I have already had to oh so carefully undo a few stitches because I had them off by one row. I tried gridding my linen, as I have seen others do in some of the blogs I read, but I messed that up several times before giving up on it. So I am just going to work slowly and learn to enjoy this pattern (even if it kills me).

              Yes, this really is 42 stitches. I counted them twice!

Well, you are about caught up on my life and progress now. The schools have been closed because of the snow, so the kids have been home. That means I have not been able to work much on the cross stitch, since my good natural light floor lamp is in the living room. I can't concentrate on the little bitty stitches with a couple of kids yelling and jumping around. I have just stayed in my room for the most part and been on hulu or catching up on emails.

I have finally managed to read a few pages of a book today. I haven't been reading much lately, what with all the new projects I have been attempting. I used to read a book a day. Not anymore! Too busy doing my crafting. Maybe I should slow down and enjoy a good book and not worry about any more crafts until the kids are back in school. Maybe.

Well, I will let you all get back to your busy lives and I will get back to mine. I hope all of your projects, whatever they may be, are going well for you. Enjoy these days of crafting and creating, of enjoying art in whatever form you take the most pleasure in, because the day comes for all of us that we will no longer be able to. Then we will be able to sit back and remember fondly all of the joy we took in our crafts.

Happy Crafting!