Well, here is the tale of my recent major knitting fail. I talked a while back about signing up for my first two KALs (Knit-A-Longs). One of them went wonderfully. I have a beautiful color affection shawl that I enjoy. The other . . . not so much.
The Holla Back Tank was supposed to be my first foray into garments (as opposed to accessories and the like). It is a pretty straightforward pattern and it seemed like a good way to go to increase my knitting skills. But sometimes things just go wrong.
Sigh.
The Knitmore Girls run a fantastic podcast that I listen to regularly. On said podcast, they have a segment they call “When Knitting Attacks!” Well, the Holla Back Tank is my own tale of knitting woe.
I would like to say, as a credit to the Holla Back Knits folks who were hosting this KAL, I do think the pattern is well-written and totally manageable. But for some reason, it just wasn’t working for me. The techniques that did me in are techniques that I have done before without trouble, so it is a bit of a mystery, really. I think that maybe other knitters can attest to this, though, that sometimes, when you start to have a bit of trouble with a project, it can mess with your head in such a way that you just have to put the needles down and walk away.
I have done this.
The front of the tank is done – after a few mishaps, but the back was just problematic. I made small errors, that were too visible for my liking. Each time I frogged, my enthusiasm for the project waned a bit and my frustration level increased, which, as any knitter knows, creates a situation that is increasingly likely to result in one of the following scenarios:
a) The WIP (work in progress) being shoved into the deep recesses of a closet or drawer somewhere to be rediscovered with less frustration at a later date;
b) Knitting needles being thrown across the room; or
c) Massive amounts of cursing and berating of the yarn that is betraying you.
I may be guilty of all three.
The fact of the matter is that I couldn’t invest more time and energy in this project right now, with holiday knitting time wasting away. I do think I’ll return to this project another day – some magical day when I dig through the storage space inside of my ottoman and discover this long lost project with renewed determination and excitement.
Until then, holiday knitting has commenced!