And the Winner Is..........

The "Peruvian" hat; actually, when I pulled out the pattern from the magazine, it is called the "Andean" hat. (You know, like a ski hat with ear flaps) All I know is it is intarsia, 5 colors, 4 different pattern charts. I love doing this! Last winter I made 3 such hats (ski hats with ear flaps), like Scandinavian knitting(?); snowflake pattern; 3 colors. Really liked how they turned out.

Well, everything was going along great; had the hat finished up in 2 days. Just as I got to the last row, ready to finish off the top, I looked at the hat and thought "this is way too small! This can't be right." Went back and read the pattern over 3 times until it hit me --- I omitted 2 pattern charts! Aaarrrgghhh! Know what that means??? Rrrriiiipppp. 5 colors! All the crown decreases! And the worse part is -- oh yes, it gets worse -- I was marking the rows as I finished them and used a post-it note to keep track of the chart rows! Ooohhh Yeah!

This morning I patiently and cautiously ripped out the damn thing down to where the good knitting was and placed all 104 stitches back on the circular needles; I'm ready to go again. I will persevere; I will not be dissuaded; I want that hat!!

I am becoming so delusional that as I was knitting this mistake, I was dreaming of actually making a whole sweater with chart patterning! Crazy, I know. Here's another "not all there" moment -- I was also planning the colors for the next "Andean" hat! I know!! Call the Funny Farm; get the jacket with the extra long sleeves; "Step Away from the Knitting Needles Now!"

I know how this happened -- I surprisingly had 2 nights off from work - someone else offered to do them for me. I was so giddy, I couldn't wait to get home and continue knitting. I had forgone my afternoon nap! Had leftovers(for the second night in a row) for supper; it was a quiet and laidback evening. I could and did knit and knit and knit and then --- it happened. I got too sure of myself; too confident; too starry eyed. Visions of charted sweaters dancing in my head!

To ease the frustration, I made a huge pot of chili last night. I know, I know - "how could you attempt to put together the ingredients for chili when you can't even follow simple charts?" you ask. Ha! What more could possible go wrong!

The chili did turn out great, so says my son who had 2 big bowls at 11:00pm. And it was even better tonight for supper, says same son who had 3 big bowls! BH also agreed it was delicious. So take that, gremlins of fiber antics!!

I did get the sweater vest washed up the other day. It is now dried and put away; still have to sew the buttons on -3 wood buttons. Hope to get that done on Thursday. Hope to have pictures posted here soon. I am very happy with the vest; it turned out beautifully, especially being that most of the shaping was done on a wing and a prayer. Now how did I manage to do that?!

Happy spinning and knitting!