...While We're on the Subject of Mistakes...

Do you ever feel like you're being watched?  ...or read?

Two days after my blog on Burning Eggs and Botching Socks, Interweave Insider published an article on The Beauty of Crafting Mistakes.  Either somebody at Interweave loves me and sympathizes, or it was just something in the knitting ether this week.  Anyhow, since we are ALL talking about knitting mistakes, I'll share my winter project mishap.

Normally I have perfect guage.  I'm not bragging, it's just the way it usually works out for me.  To prove that it is not bragging, I'll fully admit that it is my absolute average-ness which makes it so that I can knit the average pattern as written for the average public without distress.  This winter I undertook a lovely pattern for a fitted cardigan by Debby Bliss. 

Cable Vent Jacket by Debbie Bliss

I used the appropriate weight yarn and the appropriate size needles and happily knit through the entire back and one front panel before realizing that I was running out of yarn...and that my sweater panels were the size of a small afghan.  When I measured the difference, I was fully 1/3 larger than the target dimensions!!!!  Mental note:  Debby Bliss knits tightly.  As my lovely Rowan silk-linen yarn had been discontinued, I paused my project for nearly a month while the only remaining matching yarn in sufficient quantity made its way across the Atlantic in what must have been a tugboat.  A very EXPENSIVE tugboat. 


 



But since we are talking about the positive aspects of mistakes, I will tell you that the sedentary lifestyle necessary to knit this near-Snuggie-sized garment led to me packing on 20 lbs this winter...and had I succeeded in knitting a "fitted" sweater, it most certainly would not have fit.  So, here's to serendipidous mistakes and lovely housecoats!