KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

You know these knitting projects that don't want to cooperate? Or is it me with the attitude - maybe I am just too flaky these days and think I can do it all without a good plan/pattern...

I got this great idea to knit my Dad a vest for his birthday, which was on March 15. Never mind the date - he'll get it in April when I visit my parents. Much nicer to hand him the vest than to mail it, right? Plus, it gave me an additional month to knit. So, know that I am not running late, yet...

Here is my problem - I have done more ripping on this project than knitting - another knitting project from hell. I don't know if you remember - I had one of these amongst the Christmas gifts I knitted as well. It was the hat I made for my Dad. Is there some knitting goddess who is trying to tell me something?... No more knitting for Dad? Well, her vibes aren't coming through clearly because I am still knitting on the vest - third try, I might add. Or maybe it's because it's a gift: the meaning of the German word "gift" in English is "poison". Hmmm... Never mind, don't make my mind wander any further...

OK, so you might remember this picture from a few posts ago:

Last Thursday it looked like this:

And here we are Sunday night - almost back to where I ripped the whole thing. I had used up two balls of Rowan Cashsoft (almost 400 yards) and now I am almost back to the end of the second ball:

As you can see, I came up with a new pattern - since I was ripping anyway. It has 5 evenly spaced cables. They look like barley or a French braid. I found the cable in Alice Starmore's Fishermen's Sweaters. The filler pattern between the cables is very simple - k1, p1, on the right side and knit all stitches on the wrong side. So it's a nice pattern if you don't like to purl too much. In addition, I got a little wiser - I am not knitting in the round anymore. :-)

To add to the fun, I also lost the piece of paper with the measurements, so yesterday I had to ask my mom again for all the important numbers. Of course, she asked how the project was coming along, and I told her that I had to rip a couple of times to fix mistakes and that I finally ripped the whole thing and started over with a new pattern, etc. When I said that I wasn't knitting in the round anymore because I couldn't stand knitting 300 stitches and then ripping them, she chuckled and said that she hadn't wanted to say anything but she thought it was not a very good idea in the first place. Granted you don't have to seam the sides, but when you have to rip, it is a nightmare and you end up ripping twice as much.

Coincidently, the very same cable is on the cover of the current issue of Cast On:

What do they mean by GENTLE pleasures... QUIET cottons??? That we must not curse when we knit one of their patterns? Way too late for this project.

And so I don't lose the measurements again, I am just going to write them into this post:
Width: 57cm
To armhole: 46 cm
To V neck: 51 cm
To shoulder: 26 cm
Total length: 72 cm
Shoulders: 18 cm - 21 cm - 18 cm

Yes, I still use metric sometimes. Cross your fingers that it'll be smooth knitting from here on out... And the yarn is extremely smooth - I can recommend it highly (and it rips nicely, too).

Happy Monday!!!