Disaster, Disaster, Who Wants a Disaster?

We seem to have enough to go around here. Luckily not major ones, but still lots to chatter on about. That? That is one of the many small trees, tree tops and large branches that are currently blanketing our back yard in wake of the ice storm that ushered in my 45th birthday! That's right folks, I welcomed the (hopefully) second half of my life by sitting in a dark house knitting by the dim light of the window and listening to the sickening sound of trees breaking under the weight of ice and snow, hoping that nothing big would hit the house. That's the bad news. The good news is that nothing hit the house, the worst we have to deal with is an unbelievable amount of cleanup, the unexpected three days off was a really nice bonus, and all the chickens came through unscathed.

As for the knitting, it was the usual story. I knit a gauge swatch, optimistically guesstimated based on the swatch, and jumped in with both feet. I knit for three days and got past the yoke and into the third stripe (I'm knitting Paulie, in case you're just tuning in), before deciding to A. try it on, and B. check my gauge in "real time", thus ushering in disaster #2. I think it's time for me to face the ugly truth: my purling is irredeemably loose. Like college freshman away from home for the first time loose. I mean really, if I can't face the truth now, when will I face it? It's time to adopt a new wrong side technique: knitting backwards.

Feels just like starting over... because I did!

I've toyed around with knitting backwards before, but after years of struggling with loose gauge because of my purls, I decided to rip out everything on this sweater and restart at the beginning with a new swatch, committed to this new technique... and here's what I discovered: by knitting backwards instead of purling, I hit gauge. Spot on. With the recommended needle size. Bam.

Lesson learned, and hopefully future knitting disasters averted. I don't remember which book it is that urges knitters not to lie to themselves when counting stitches on a swatch-- probably one of the Zimmerman books-- sounds like her, right? Be brutally honest with your gauge, my friends. Brutal honesty is kinder than ripping out the 20% you've completed of a fingering weight long sleeve cardigan!

Some time this week when I have time to get to it, I will post a video to show you what knitting backwards looks like-- it's pretty slick. Imagine never having to look at the wrong side of stockinette again! Just imagine.

And with that, I will leave you with a pretty picture... because even disasters have a sensitive side: