Monday, August 12, 2013

I Quit

UFO: A knitting abbreviation for unfinished object.  

In all the years I've been knitting (and crocheting), I finish every project I start. Some may take a while, like the afghan that took me six years to finish. And some come out so awful that I stash them away, never to be worn or seen again. But I finish them.

(Well, not everything. The first sweater I ever tried to knit I gave up on, primarily because I misread the pattern, and it went sideways quickly. I ripped the thing out and reused the yarn. I still have the pattern, and someday I might try to knit it again. Although, that was the '80s, so the pattern is a bit dated now.)  

I started the Yaddo Cardigan back in April. I had some issues with it. A couple times I had to rip out rows because I skipped a stitch, but those were my errors, so they didn't bother me too much. I was thrilled to get the main body done and get started on the right front.  

But that's where things went all wrong.  

I read the pattern. I tried to do what the pattern said, but on some rows, what the pattern said I should do did not correspond with the stitches I had in front of me on my project. I ripped out and redid, but I couldn't get pattern and reality to coincide. So, I fudged things. 

I finished the right front, sort of. It wasn't completely right, but it was sort of there, and I could live with it. 

I set the thing aside for a bit, because I knew I was going to have to spend some time concentrating when I went to work on the back. Last week I finally had the mental space to sit down and do it. And that's where it went all wrong.  


It's rather hard to see, but the back isn't in the exact middle of the sweater. It's off to the side a bit. 

Realizing that this wasn't going to work, I went back and recounted everything. My stitch counts were right. Which meant that I needed to go back and recalculate to make the pattern work.  

That's when I decided that I was done with this. Sure, I could do the math to make things work. But it just wasn't worth it anymore.  

I ripped the whole thing out last Sunday. It took about two hours. 

I will use the yarn for something else. I don't know what yet. It's nice yarn. But this cardigan will never be. Sigh. 

Ever given up on something you'd worked on for a long time? Did you regret it? 

2 comments:

  1. I never actually quit. (Unless it's a craft, or cleaning.) I always put things on the back burner for "one day" -- something I'm gaining more perspective about every day I get older. Really, if it's important, I will get back to it.

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  2. I have a number of abandoned projects on my computer. Some I hope to go back to. Others...well, they may still be sitting quietly in folders years from now.

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