This just arrived in my inbox “Knitting in Canada” yahoo groups email folder. It was sent by Lorraine Armstrong of Fort Smith.

Enjoy! 🙂

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There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60years.

They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box; but one day the little old woman got very sick, and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.

When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totalling $25,000.He asked her about the contents.

“When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was never to argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily.”

The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

“Honey,” he said, “that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”

“Oh,” she said, “that’s the money I made from selling doilies.”

The brief note that I posted shows up as Saturday, but I actually posted late Friday night (after midnight) before bed. Classic Cabled Aran in Paton’s Decor was not working.

Saturday I went for dinner with Debbie, Yannick, Julie and Richard, and another friend, Steve. We had a nice Italian meal at Spaggio’s and I’m very happy I managed to eat sensibly, even surrounded by all that pasta-glorious temptation! I have Yannick’s cousin’s wedding this summer, my cousin’s wedding in September, plus I assume I’ll be getting married at some point within the next two years. 😉 (Good thing Yannick never reads my blog, eh?) So I’m trying to lose the extra pounds I put on when I quit smoking over 2.5 years ago. (Little secret: the pic of me up in the corner there is about 6 years old. Shhhh!)

After dinner we headed over to Laurentian Lanes and bowled. Well, mostly everyone bowled. Debbie didn’t ‘cus she’s not a big fan, plus she’s so tiny and was afraid they wouldn’t have any 6 lb balls. :] Just kidding, I love to tease my little midget. Ok, so legally she’s 1″ beyond being labeled a midget. Technicalities.

I didn’t bowl ‘cus baby, I got deadlines! I spent the entire time working on the CCA. I like the pattern, it’s quick and easy, but MAN am I aggrivated at having to repeat it now for the 4th time, just to see if it’s working! My plan was to work up to 24 rows, 1 full repeat, and see if I hit 4″ high and 17″ wide. If yes, I continue. If no, I accept that I just can’t get this one to work, and I move on.

To Jenifer from the comments a few days ago: Thanks for the encouragement. I’m really not liking doing this, but, like you said, I know it’s the right thing to do. BTW that’s the first time I’ve seen our name with 1 n. It’s kinda cute. I like things that are asymetrical. 🙂

To Keri from the comments a few days ago: *sigh* I’m not brave. If this was for anything else but for sale I’d have just fudged it to make it fit. And the “next try” turned into 3 more! LOL I’m going to dream about this pattern!

By the time bowling ended I’d made it to 21 rows, so I packed it up.

This morning I started again. Can I just say how much of a hard time I had actually taking the knitting out of my bag? I just couldn’t bear to look at it! Nevertheless I pushed myself, and soon enough was at 24 rows. Then I went to 26 to make it easier to measure. I measured. I had 17″. Yay! I measured the height. I had 3.75″.

That just of wind you all just felt ruffling your hair as you faced your computer screens? That was me letting out a huge sigh of relief.

No, I still didn’t have gauge. But after a full week of attempt after attempt, I feel fully justified in saying: I tried. It ain’t working. Therefore, I’m not doing it.

Now, much calmer, I’m going to park myself in front of The Food Network until Yannick gets home from Costco, and work on the other requested dog sweater. This one is called Spoilt Rotten, from a Leisure Arts booklet my parents picked up while in Florida. It’s simple, in stockinette and ribbing, and has instructions like “work even until 5 inches” or “rib for 3 inches”.

Piece of cake.

Just a quick note ‘cus I work tomorrow. I started over on the Classic Cabled Aran with a 5.5mm. Yes, I know I’d said I’d start with the 6mm. Sue me. In any case, I measured the width after about 6 rows, and had at least 18.5″ (it was hard to measure on the needle). WAY over my req’d 17″. I frogged AGAIN and started back over with the 5mm. I know it didn’t work yesterday, but that was after doing 24 rows on the 4.5mm. I’m hoping that working with the 5mm right from the cast on will make a difference. If not, I give up on this sweater.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Ok. Calm down. Breathe. Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh.

Tonight, after another hour of knitting on the Classic Cabled Aran, I turned this:

into this:

“But why?” you ask, “It looks great! The cables all twist the way they should -except that first one on the bottom right, but no one will ever notice. Besides, you’ve already started over once before.”

I know. But still, even after going up from a 4mm (req’d needle) to a 4.5mm (the first 24 row repeat) then to a 5mm (the next 24 rows) I STILL DON’T GET THE %f@!#$ GAUGE!

Yes, I’d wanted to finish the sweater by Sunday so I can start the child sweater Monday with only 1 more dog sweater outstanding.

Yes, I’ve worked on this sweater now Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in a row.

Yes, I know it’s just for a dog and I could *fudge* it a bit by adding more ribbing, etc…

But I’ve already frogged.

The stupid thing should have been 8″ high after 2 repeats- I have 7″. The first repeat with the 4.5mm gives me 3.25″. The 5mm only gives me 3.75mm.

The width should be 17″. The first repeat with the 4.5mm gives me about 13.5-14″. The 5mm gives me 15″.

I have no choice. I can’t keep going and keep a clear conscience. I had to start over.

I’m resentful, but I feel better. Tomorrow -not tonight, I feel better but I’m still resentful- I will start over yet again, this time jumping straight to a 6mm. I know there is a 5.5mm in between I could try. Save it. I’m a tight knitter. I acknowledge that. I embrace that. Tonight I’m going to go to sleep and try to forget all the wasted hours this week. Tomorrow I knit. Give me a 6mm addi turbo circ and get out of my way.

There wasn’t much on TV tonight that I watch, so I got to catch up on some tapes while knitting away, until 10:00 when I watched Law & Order because I was already taping CSI:NY. I got some good knitting time in…BUT for that $%&$ gauge.

If anyone read yesterday’s post you’ll remember that I didn’t get gauge with the recommended 4mm needle. So I frogged and started over with a 4.5mm. Well I measured again at 24 rows and was still a half-inch short. I decided not to rip again. If this were for a person, or even made to measure, I’d frog. But this is for stock, and just an approximation of the size. If the medium calls for a 12″ length and I fall a bit short, I can always make the ribbing longer. I’m not worried about the width as my stitch gauge is spot-on.

So I’m continuing but now with a 5mm. So I have 24 rows at 4.5mm, I’ll do 24 rows with 5mm. According to my patt, 48 rows should be 8″. I’ll see when I get to that point. If it works then I’ll do my ribbing at the end with the 4mm or 4.5mm to keep it constant, instead of the 3.5mm called for.

Here’s where I am so far:

Because I will have the sweater to do for my LYS as of Monday, my plan until then is to work like mad on this. The other dog sweater is in stockinette and won’t take too long, but I need to follow a chart for this one, so I’m trying to finish it first. The plan is to do nothing but knit tomorrow after work, Friday before Julie & Rich come over, Saturday night after supper (I work Sat) and Sunday all day.

Here’s another 2 pics, just ‘cus I think they’re cute:

I got a great phone call at work today! Nicole (my knitting teacher at my LYS) called to see if I would be interested in knitting up a sweater for a woman who’d planned on making 2 but had to stop after the first. Of course I would! The pay isn’t much, but hopefully next time it will be a bit more. I think it’s supposed to be something like the cost of the yarn…? I’m not sure. Anyways, I agreed for this one, and I’ll see how long it takes, etc… It’s a child’s sweater in a bulky yarn so I’m not worried it will take forever.

Now I just need to hurry up and get moving on these latest two dog sweaters! I hope by the time I stop tonight I’ll at least be up to where I had to rip last night, about 4″ (1 full pattern repeat).

*fingers crossed*

I’m not happy. I had finished 24 rows of the Classic Cabled Aran using Paton’s Decor. I had done this much…

…finishing the first diamonds and the 24-row repeat. The plan was to do another full repeat and be at 8″, ready to start the shaping.

Ahem. This would mean that 24 rows would be 4″. Yup, I checked the pattern and the gauge is 24 rows x 18 sts in moss st/cable st pattern. I have measured 18 sts. I have 4″. I measured my 24 rows. I have 3.5″. ARGH. No I did not swatch. This is a dog sweater. The sweater is the swatch.

I shouldn’t be surprised. I know I knit a bit tight, a habit that stuck after making a sock one of my very first knitting projects and trying really hard to avoid ladders. (I did, for those curious).

So I frogged. All of it. And started over. I think Sam realized I wasn’t too happy about this, as he stopped trying to catch my yarn or needle, and instead tried to appear as inconspicuous as possible:

I did 6 rows before realizing I’d had enough of the Classic Cabled Aran for the night. So it sits at this much done…

…until tomorrow when I can bear to look at it again. (As an aside, a big “thank you” to my mom for bringing me back the metalic magnet-board from her trip to Florida over the holidays. I didn’t think I’d ever use it ‘cus I put all my patterns in my Palm, but the lace socks taught me that I really prefer working from a chart v.s. a written-out “k4, C4B, p1, k1, p4, C4F, blah, blah, blah”.)

Because Law & Order: SVU was still on and I needed something non-aggrivating to work on, I pulled out the blue charity baby sweater. I’d started it yesterday by doing 5 rows of the ribbing during my knitting class. Tonight I made it up to 23 rows before stopping to come post and go to bed:

The sweater is using Paton’s Astra that was donated to the Lakeshore Hospital Auxiliary and given to me for these sweaters, and a pattern called Heart Warmer from an old Paton’s book that calls for the Astra. Only another 13 rows and I begin the raglan shaping.

I really love raglans. I didn’t like them at all until I started knitting, and now I love the neat little paired decreases and the ease it is to seam when you make the decs 1 st in from the edge. I’m looking forwards to putting this together, which is odd ‘cus I’m only 23 rows in of the only piece I’ve started.

Now to bed, to hopefully wake up tomorrow and forget that I’d ever worked the full 24 rows of CCA (even though I’m still really proud of myself for dropping those 5 sts 6 rows and working them back up in cables, no less).

I know I said I’d be knitting, but I couldn’t resist catching up on a few blogs and found this link in Mindy’s post of Feb 1. Truly hysterical knitting patterns. Tres original. Go see.

I’m home from work, have changed into my shloomphy clothes, have an onion soup heating up in the oven, and Yannick’s at bowling tonight (on a league team with my dad, my brother and my cousin). This means I have the night to myself…to knit!

I’m hoping to make some really good progress on the dog sweaters this week so I can use Sunday to make up a bunch of stitch markers. I’d really like to send some RAOKs out on Monday when I’m at the mall with my LYS as they have a post office branch there. I know some RAOKers read my blog, but I figure that no one will be able to tell in advance that I’m sending them something, and even though I will be posting pics once they’re made, it will still be a surprise when they come in the mail.

To Keri from the comments: thanks for making plans to stop by! It’s encouraging to know that people read me. 🙂 And I get Mondays to knit ‘cus I work Saturdays, so my weekend is Sun-Mon. (This stops for the summers when I work Mon-Fri, and since Yannick is home those days, I’m supposed to hang out with him, so I get less knitting done). I like the way it is right now ‘cus he’s home Sat to clean the house, we see each other Sundays, and Mondays I have to myself to do what I want while he’s at work.

To Julie from the comments: that duck outfit sounds adorable! I look forwards to having kids for the torture, I’m already planning on making the corn cob baby bunting to start the torture when they’re young!

(click the pic to get taken to Lion Brand’s site for the free pattern)

To Amanda from the comments: thanks for the sweet words!

I didn’t post my progress last night because my computer started acting all wonky and lost use of the mouse, and then keyboard. Once I finally got them working again I was too stressed to want to use the offending devices.

So here is last night’s report. I did this much on the Classic Cabled Aran:

I think it’s about 4″ or so. Wanna know what the best part is? I’ve only ever made one cable before, a little one on the front of the purse I knitted with my Reader’s Digest Learn to Knit kit last year. That cable was made with a cable needle. I remembered it being fiddly. I also remembered lots of knitters online singing the praises of knitting without a cable needle. Guess what I did? Yup! Each and every cable above is made without a cable needle! (As you can see by the lowest twist of the right-most cable, it took me a few rows to realize how to insert my needle depending on whether I wanted the first sts to go to the front or the back. I know that one is the wrong way. Tough.)

But wait! That’s not all! There’s more! I did something last night that I am so incredibly proud of myself for!!! :]

This is a closeup of those cables. See the mistake? Oh, wait, you can’t see the mistake. The mistake was that the left-most middle point of the left-most diamond actually twisted the wrong way before the side of the diamond went up from left to right. It looked really silly, because although the diamond shape was there, the point of the diamond went the wrong way. Know why you can’t see the mistake? Because I, fearlessly armed with my favorite little crochet hook, deliberately dropped the first last 5 sts of the center cable section down 6 rows and then worked them back up properly, including the 3 rows that had cable twists!! I really can’t believe I did that! Fine, I already knew how to pick up a dropped st even if it ran a row or two, and I knew that if I picked it up from the front it would create a knit stitch, whereas if I inserted my crochet hook from the back it would create a purl. But I’d never gone back more than 2 rows. Never on purpose. Never 5 at a time. And never had to cable while bringing those sts up 6 rows. I really don’t think it shows at all that there was ever a mistake there.

I knew this was possible in knitting, since almost anything is possible in knitting. I just didn’t think I’d be able to do it. And I did! Yay!

Now I have to leave for work during this nice blizzard we’re having.