Muir

This stole is going to be the death of me. I have such a perfect vision in my head about how lovely it's going to look when it's finished. If I ever finish.

When I saw this pattern in the latest knitty, I knew I had to have it -- and I also knew that I already had the perfect yarn in my stash. I had gotten some knitpicks alpaca cloud a while back, and while I was putting in an order to finish a (different) stole I was making, I decided to get another color to save on shipping costs. I already had every intention of making a lacy scarf, so I figured I'd be saving money by buying the yarn first. I lost the wind in my sails when I couldn't really find a pattern that fit the color, though, and I put it on the shelf and forgot about it a little bit.

It had been sitting patiently in my stash for a year when Muir was published. Even though the original stole is green, because it's inspiration is a forest...well, this shade of purple makes me think of trees, too. Plus, it's heathered and there's some brown in it, right?

Anyway, I cast on in September, during a Penn State game, and I have now ripped the thing out twice. I drove myself crazy when I kept going (for five repeats!) despite my mistakes on the first attempt, until I realized I would never be happy with myself, and then I wouldn't wear the stole, and it would just amount to more wasted yarn in my house. I decided to be more careful on my next attempt. EXTRA-careful. Then somewhere in the first repeat of the second attempt, I had too many stitches! Then not enough stitches! I forged ahead like a woman possessed. I kept thinking that if I knit fast enough, maybe I could fudge it gracefully, but then the alignment of my fudged YOs and K2togs was off by a whole leaf tip. I still thought I could keep going, so I did, for two rows. And then I got a little tipsy on Friday and ripped it out before I could think about what I was doing. I also ordered expensive Christmas cards...so it was a "productive" sort of tipsy.

So this time, my third time, I have used so many lifelines you would not believe it. I have completed my first PERFECT repeat. And I plan on taking my time this time. And it will be perfect. Now there's the obnoxious little straight-A student I was starting to miss!