Design Elements

Laura

My Favorite Weekend

I’m not sure how many of you are hunkered down in front of your TV’s with two day’s worth of knitting prepared like I am all because it’s one of the best weekends of the year . . .  Yes, it is finally NFL Wild Card weekend!

It’s the best football ever; two days, four games, eight playoff quality teams and always the unexpected. TiVo has only improved the experience – allowing me to pause the game (briefly) when family reality intrudes. “Mom, do you think we can have breakfast today?” was the pre-game question since the shows here on the west coast start at a somewhat unreasonable time of 9 am. I called back “There are waffles in the freezer” without breaking the rhythm in my row and mentally patt edmyself on the back for being a good mother and teaching the kids to be independent.

Don’t worry, the beer and chips didn’t come out until the second game in the evening. That’s why I can’t blame my truly obvious color change error on the drink. When I watch football I like to pull out my sports fan scarf. Usually knit with Karabella Aurora 8, but since I am a self-indulgent knitter (it's the best way to be) and my team’s (Stanford) colors happen to be available I am knitting with Karabella Margrite. The 20% cashmere blend makes my fingers smile.

It’s the perfect project to work on while watching TV; simple but not boring, with consistent color changes that don’t require much attention –> 4 rows of red then 2 rows of white. The operative word being “much”. Not only did I knit 4 rows of white early on in the first quarter, I didn’t even notice until much later.

So what to do? Ripping out a stitch with so many yarn overs is a tedious affair with questionable success (see our Life Line post for a bit of “do as I say not as I do”). This is why some so-called errors are really just opportunities. I like to call these little mental bloopers “design elements”. All I need to do is add the same wide white stripe at the other end and it will look like it was done on purpose.

You guys will be the only ones to know and I know you won’t tell!

Comments

[Clumsy Knitter]

I am so with you on the "design element" thing. Unless it's a gaping hole...I'll live.

[Suzanne V. (Yarnhog)]

Love the design element. And the frozen waffles. We make waffles a lot, and we always make extras to put in the freezer for just that sort of event. Independence. Yeah...