My name is Suzanne and I have anger problems...
Knitters, we have all been there. You try to knit something, it doesn't work, so you frog it and start again. You then try to knit it again and it still doesn't work. Your temperature rises. You frog it again, this time a little more exuberantly. You go and make a cup of tea before trying again. It doesn't work for a third time. You cry.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that there is nothing in the world more frustrating than getting something wrong in knitting and having to pull it out. With each row that you pull out, you weigh up in your mind how much time you're also pulling out. Depressing and soul-destroying.
I am currently stuck in the middle of this vicious cycle. A year or so ago, when I was on maternity leave, I was revelling in knitting a myriad of patterns and garments while Noah napped. I decided to take on a tricky project; a skirt of English Mesh Lace by Suzi Anvin. I went and bought some 100% cotton yarn and set about creating the tube skirt in the round. A week later I think I had pulled it out countless times before finally succeeding, knitting 10 rounds and putting it away in my craft cupboard.
Fast forward to last week and I thought it might be a good idea to get the skirt out again. Always one to forward plan, I had written the lacework rows on strips of paper and had paper clipped the row I got up to at the top of the pile. Off I went, knitting three complete rounds, before I realised it wasn't working. And, because of the way it was knitted in the round and as lace, I really struggled to frog it back to where I picked it up. So (don't judge me!) I pulled THE WHOLE THING out in a fit of rage. Ashamed doesn't begin to cover it. I then had a little cry while my poor husband sat dumbfounded.
Being a diligent knitter, I then decided to knit a small swatch of the pattern to make sure I was doing it right. Nope, you've guessed it, that didn't work either. So I did what I should have done all along: I checked the abbreviations.
I was knitting SK2P as 'slip, knit 2, pass slipped stitch over' but I found out I should have been doing, 'slip, knit 2 TOGETHER, pass slipped stitch over.' I had assumed (lazily) that would be abbreviated as SK2-togP. Hmm.
So my advice for today? Even if you've been knitting for 24 years with few problems, don't think you are too accomplished for the abbreviations page. You're not.
