I got a good start on Johnna’s shawl. At the 48-stitch point, I thought, you know, better count those… But why? C’mon, I know I did those increases right, it’s not like this is rocket science! I did a brief check without paying enough attention to the doubled strands, which of course tend to tangle stitches over each other on the needles if you’re being in a careless hurry. It went past 48, and I just figured I hadn’t been paying attention anyway, so I must have missed a stitch or two in my hurry. Eh. Whatever. I went merrily on.
It wasn’t till I hit what was supposed to be 193 stitches, and had 204 (still didn’t know that) so that the new pattern section came out totally hashed, that I found out what I’d done: I’d cast on with 13 instead of 12. Wayyy back there at the beginning. I frogged just a bit, trying to finagle it, which is the point at which I snapped this shot, and then started knitting it again. Stopped, looked at it, realized how bad my fudging job looked, and finally gave in to the inevitable and frogged all the way back down to the cast on.
One simple single stitch, all by itself. Just one. One quarter of an inch, max. And everything built on top of that, over and over and over, until the whole thing was way over in left field.  All I had had to do was stop and take a full accounting of where I was going, while I was so sure I knew what I was doing that I ignored my inner gut check and kept right on, thinking I was following the instructions.
I love the way knitting gives occasional life metaphors. I also love the fact that when it doesn’t work out right, you can rip the thing all the way back to the beginning, painful though it may be, and start fresh.
You should see it now. More pictures later as there’s more and more to show off.
