Sometimes ripping is an easy decision. I hate a pattern, despise a yarn, or just generally feel repulsion for my knitting, and out it goes. Rippity-rip-rip; it even feels g-o-o-d.

This time, this time is different. It seems like I’ve been ripping *all* my good projects lately. I can’t count how many times Rogue has been ripped for gauge issues. Now, it’s my little snow-beauty. Here’s what it looks like right now…

The heel has been reworked several times, until I could get a feel for intarsia. Here are the last two:

Yes, the sock fits on my foot, but it doesn’t fit right. It’s the first one, which mean that if I should bull-headedly press on – you could at least pretend to be shocked at the thought – I’d have to do another one wrong, too, just so they match. And so, it will go into the frog-pond. I’m not sure how far back I’m going to rip, but the longer I dither, the more I lean toward frogging the whole thing. Right now I’m knitting the medium size but at a tighter gauge than specified. I’ll probably go up a needle size and see where I land then. Maybe I’ll rip it all out and give it a few months to marinate before I start in again; I’m feeling the urge to work on something different.

Right now, the socks are sitting on the edge of the pond, and I’m working up the gumption to take out all that work. Someday soon, but not today.

(1) Deciding to knit a gift within a week and getting it done on time is still doable.

(2) Doing (1) is not such a good idea if your family still expects you to homeschool, do laundry, and cook.

(3) Thumbs don’t really live right on the sides of your hands. Moving the thumbs over a rib or so would be a good idea.

(4) EZ’s sewn bind-off is crazy stretchy. Although fabulous on the top of socks, it’s a little too stretchy for the tops of these fingerless mitts. I bound off the thumb-tops normally. See the difference? I left it anyway (see #1) and decided that it was a selling point, as you can fold your fingers down to be protected inside the mitt this way. Did I mention crazy stretchy?

(5) The backs of fingerless mitts are a fun place to play with cables.

Details:

Started:	27 Feb 2008
Finished:	6 Mar 2008
Pattern:	Stulpen by Petra
Yarn:	Colinette Cadenza (DK weight 100% superwash wool) in Lapis – 93
Needles:	KnitPicks 2.75 mm (US 2) dpns
Notes:	A fun pattern. I modified it by starting the thumb at row 7, doing 7 rows of rib after the end of the chart, and binding off with EZ’s sewn bind-off. If I make it again, I’ll use a regular bind-off, a size larger needle, and move the thumbs one rib over toward the palm of the hand.