2312

2312. That's the number of stitches I had to frog (aka rip out for the nonknitting fam) on Italian's anniversary sweater. Not only did I miss the deadline, but I also will have to reknit 2312 stitches. Oddly enough, I feel better and like the sweater more. I think part of my new found love of the sweater is that now, it may will look right. It didn't look right before. The trees in the forrest motif didn't look like trees. They looked like naked stumps. I found out last night that the reason they looked like naked stumps were because the limbs were showing up on the inside of the sweater and the stumps were on the outside of the sweater. I should have taken a picture to clarify, but there will be many more opportunities to display pictorial proof of my ditziness, so, we'll move on.

I frogged the entire forrest on the gansey and began reknitting it last night. I think this go round, the trees will have limbs. Now, here is the really shocking part of my frogging experience. I did not have a lifeline in my knitting. I frogged without abandon and picked up stitches, praying that I would have the correct number of stitches on my needles. Surprisingly, I did! I did not drop a single stitch! Yay! I did happen to lose two sterling beaded stitch markers (I have no idea how I did this because I frogged on the floor and the missing stitch markers were not on the floor, odd I tell you), but I didn't drop a stitch! I decided to not tempt bad mojo, or karma, or the fates, so I also added a lifeline to my knitting.

I think my love for the sweater was also rejuvinated with a little help from Italian last night. Before I frogged the forrest, I had a gnawing feeling that the sweater was turning out to be more of a crop top, which is not a look that suits Italian. I held the sweater up to him last night and was shocked to see that it hit the perfect spot on his frame. Another Yay! Then, since our anniversary has passed, and I can open knit and talk about the sweater, I showed him the picture from Handknit Holidays. He loved it! He said that it was perfect. He beamed. Yay!