oh, the pain

So I wanted to knit up a Gilmore Vest all for my lonesome. I saw so many good ones all over Rav and everyone's blogs in the past years. (note: I'm lazy so sometimes it takes *ahem* years for me to get on the bandwagon. end note.) I even thought that I might have enough left overs from the tweed-ish yarn I used for The Hubby's Weasley Sweater. I did not.

So I searched SAFF this past October for the perfect yarn. After more than two rounds on the showroom floors and wearing poor Grasshopper's feet and mood to sour, I finally picked up some cheap ($18+tax!), sturdy, pretty yarn for my vest. I waited just 8 days to cast on for this baby. I decided to knit up the extra small size in the round and even though I counted numerous times the total number, 198, of stitches I had on the needles to make sure I had the correct amount. It took until I had knitted three inches into the ribbing (aka my swatch) to realise that the extra small size has 88 stitches one the front and 88 stitches on the back. 88+88 does not = 198. And that might mean I was really off. Doh!

So I sucked it up and rip, rip, ripped back to literally NOTHING. Cast on again, this time using a calculator, and incorrectly cast on the number of stitches too small. (Remind you of anything?) However, this was not the point at which I realised anything. I only realised that the number of stitches was wrong after I had knit all 5 inches of ribbing and begun the st st portion of the sweater. Let me tell you, the yarn I am using and my tendency to be uptight while ribbing made for some not-so-pleasant hours of knitting.

But I still thought I was okay. I had a plan. A plan that involved no ripping, but did involve scary scissors. I'd seen my plan plenty of times on the interwebs and even on my friend's blogs, maybe not with ribbing, but I was knitting with coriedale yarn and it's plenty sticky stuff, like Spider-man's webbing. I would cut the yarn and steek in a new section! I could easily mattress stitch the vertical seems back together. I was gold.

(this looks kind of phallic...)

So I bravely forged ahead and cut my hours upon hours of work. I quickly whipped out the new ten stitch section I was adding, slipped it in among my live stitches and continued knitting smugly away. (You know it's going down hill from here don't you?)

(This is no better.)

My research was incomplete. I did not fully think this plan through. Steeking takes out more than one stitch, due to the unraveling of the ribbing a little...and seeming takes out another two stitches from the original vest and the additional piece. Altogether removing at least five stitches from the ten I added in leaving me five stitches short.

I am so mad at my incompetent math skills that this piece is living in time out as a crumpled heap on the floor.