excuse me, ma'am...

...would you please step away from the knitting needles?"

my inner voice has spoken with authority and i think i'm bound to listen to it. my week of knitting misadventures continues and at this point it would probably be in the best interest of my pride and self-respect if i took the rest of the week off... no more needles, no more yarn.

i was hoping that the 3rd time would be the charm with the Louisa Harding Fern pattern, but instead i struck out. swing and a miss! i realized yesterday after the kids came home from school that although i was doing fine with the actual pattern, i had once again managed to twist the stitches at the join, even though i thought i was being ohhhh soooo careful. but it may have been a blessing in disguise. when i took it off the circular needles it seemed rather large and after stepping inside the 8 rows i had managed to knit and bringing it up to my hips/thighs it was confirmed... too big!

now, i have come to accept the fact that my tension is usually off and most things i make are a little bit enlarged. generally i go down a size or two on needles to compensate and with a pattern like this i had decided to make the smallest size in the pattern, which was a dress size 6. i'm a petite woman (only 5' even) and not all that big weight wise, but i've given birth to 4 kids and i definitely have momma hips and curves, so i thought the 6 would be fine, apparently not.

so i ripped the whole thing out again and if i do decide to try my hand at it once more, i will adjust the number of cast on stitches, decreasing by at least a set, maybe two. i guess i should be thankful that i didn't end up finishing it only to find that it was gi-normous and wouldn't fit me anyway!

thinking that this is a week for sewing/crafting with other mediums. i have a bunch of other projects i would like to try but haven't gotten around to yet. at this point, even if they don't turn out perfect, at least i can chalk it up to the bad vibes this week and not take it personally.