Tricked!!!

You all know that I was anxious to finish Nimbus because I wanted to start some summer knitting. Summers are short here in Canada and if I wanted to have any summer FOs, I needed to get started.

First up on the needles is Hey, Teach! from Knitty Summer /08 issue. Turning to my most trusted source of 'real knitters' advice - ravelry - I found that 1227 ravelers had made this project. To a one, they claim it to be a 'fast knit'. Perfect! Starting with the left front, I knit quickly through the stockinet section and thought "Hey, yea. They're right. This is fast."

Moving into the lace and despite 1226 of the 1227 ravelers stating that the lace pattern was 'easily memorized' I expected a slow-down. Still, things were going well. Until, that is, I reached the armhole. I cast off the required number of stitches then had absolutely no idea where I was in the lace patteern. I looked at it from the left and from the right. From the top down and from the bottom up. Stumped! And to make matters worse, that was last Thursday morning. Time to get knitting ready to take to knit group.

No problem, I just grabbed another ball of the yarn and started the other front at knit group. The thinking being that I simply hadn't paid enough attention to the lace pattern on the left front. If I simply concentrated more while knitting the right front, it would just happen. A miracle. I would just 'know' where I was in the lace pattern and all would be well. No dummy, me, you've heard me say before.

And all was going well the first time I knit merrily along towards the shoulder - until I noticed a mistake in the lace work, two inches back. Rip.

Back up to the shoulder and I noticed a dropped stitch two inches back - most likely from the previous rip. Rip again.

Ten o'clock last night and I'm back up to the shoulder for the third time. I had just watched Jon and Kate announce to the world that they are separating. This bothers me beyond explanation - it's as if I know these people! (What will the show be called next season?) Then I see it. A mistake, two inches back. This time, I'm taking my MIL's "If you can't see it from a galloping horse, just leave it" advice.

All of which has me wondering how trustworthy those ravelers are. Surely, out of 1227 - 1228 counting me -there must be more than two of us that found the lace work frustrating. I've been tricked.