Do you remember last week when I told you I was going to have a cathartic spring cleaning of my knitting bags? How I said that all the clutter of unfinished projects and things floating around in the knitting bags was clouding my mind?

Well, I did it! I finally finished the Diagnoal Rib socks – great pattern by the way. I will definitely be knitting another pair of those.

I ripped out the minimal progress made on the Chinese Sweater. This pattern and I have been on shaky ground since the moment I cast on. I like the pattern. I like the yarn. I just don’t know if I would wear it. So out it came.

I also ripped back an almost completed project! This is a bit of a shocker and perhaps the most cathartic thing of all.

I started this aran sweater jacket years ago. It was May of 2003. If you followed that link you will see that by January of 2004 it was already doomed – that it hadn’t been worked on in months.

What was the problem you ask? prepare for admission of insanity ….. I cast on knowing full well the thing wouldn’t fit. Did you hear that? I knew it wasn’t going to fit and I cast on for it anyway. It was a part of my dieting plan. Kind of like those cookie jars and fridge magnets that talk to you and tell you to quit eating? My plan was to knit and diet at the same time, thereby providing motivation! brilliant, no?

So of course, it sat in my knitting bag for years. Last summer when Chelsea came to visit I gave her a tour of the stash and the knitting bags. I dragged this thing out from behind an armchair where I had hidden it. The knitting bag itself was covered in dust.

After only a minute or two of looking at it, Chelsea pointed out that even if it did fit, it wouldn’t look good. That it had bobbles and popcorn stitch, all over it. That adding ½” to my perimeter or anyone’s for that matter, is probably not a good idea. She wondered what was the matter with me anyway?! She’s a smart one, she is.

So I felt much better about not knitting the sweater and shoved it back behind the chair. I also kind of forgot about it.

Then I got the book Big Girl Knits. Even if you’re not a big girl, this book is great for the info on shaping and measuring. Definitely worth reading no matter what your size.

In the first couple of chapters they had a line in there that has been sounding like a gong in my head ever since I read it. It all has to do with choosing patterns. They advise you to ask yourself it you want the sweater in the picture, or the lifestlye that the model seems to be living.

Do I want the sweater or the lifestyle the model seems to be living?

That just slays me. And got me thinking ……. I think what I liked most about the aran sweater/jacket was the model’s hair.

And there is no amount of bobble stitch or popcorn stitch that is going to give me untamed and touseled red curls.

I have counted and re-counted – countless times in fact! I have consulted the SnB ladies, Ricki, Peggy & Kathleen. I have a call out to Snowball and have been intensely scrutinizing Wendy’s pictures.

I keep arriving at the same conclusion. The first lace chart of the Irish Diamond Shawl is not completely centered. After the initial yo row, the following rows all have five stitches on one side (right side of the printed pattern chart) of the lace pattern and six on the other. wtf?

am I losing my mind, or will this all make sense in the end?