Left. Right… Right. (a confession)

A few weeks ago I cast on a very cute hooded baby cardigan.

The back consisted of a simple rectangle.

The fronts employed basic shaping.

Then I was stuck.

I just couldn’t figure it out for the shoulder seams.

I knew the problem was me. It is a simple cute as anything pattern geared towards beginners.

Thus, I had several people look at the pattern. They said “of course it works (silly)”. I thanked them and chalked it up to the amount of coffee I was drinking — either not enough or loads too much.

According to my interpretation, I seamed it up and knitted the sleeves, perplexed a little about the odd shaping but c’est la vie. It didn’t make total sense but it worked out.

I finished the sleeves and seamed them during the last get together of a class for grad school. It looked right, mostly. So I carried on and finished seaming the main parts and picked up for the hood.

I finished the hood at 10:45p on Tuesday.

I started drafting this post a few minutes later, realizing my mistake with brilliant clarity.

I looked at the pattern again. I looked at another example on Ravelry.

I confirmed what had nagged me for the past few days. This next statement shouldn’t surprise anyone who has known me and my need to sign L before I say the direction: I confused right and left.

I flipped the neck shaping into the arm hole “shaping” and left the neck square/flat.

Right. No wonder why the diagram accompanying the pattern had a straight line at the arms, the reason for which I couldn’t figure out over the past two weeks.

I’d heard that you get dumber with the more edumacation you gets. Not everyone, mind you, but I’m not surprised to find it’s afflicted me.

I’m not going to rip it. I’m going to be mean and if I don’t get another gift knitted in time for an event I must attend tonight (at 6:30p) I will gift it with a disclaimer and a right to return. I’m insanely curious if it’s wearable. Maybe this is a feature and not a bug. If it doesn’t fit then I’ll give an IOU and send it when completed.

I plan to try this pattern again. Just to prove to myself I can follow simple instructions.

I should also state that the first item I cast-on during my first afternoon of realizing I no longer need to schedule grad school work is one of the most complex lace shawls I could potentially pick (at least for me, estonian lace anyone?) with a nice slippery mercerized cotton. With that, I’ll schedule this post and go to bed. I wonder what other interesting tidbits I’ll realize in the morning. ;)

update: consensus seems to be it’ll block out in time and i fretted over nothing. it was gifted with ooh’s and ahh’s last night. i really hope it fits. I’ll write up a proper post and upload photos in time.

• Category: handmade
• Tag: knit