Sheila called this afternoon and told me to go out and look on my front walk. She had tossed her knitting over the fence. She was on her way to swim and decided to drop off her knitting so I could look at it by the time she finished and help her sort out an error.
I must admit, in my mind, only Sheila would throw her knitting over the wall and hope I'd find it when I got home. Fortunately she called because I enter the house through the garage and thus didn't see the knitting even though it was bright orange.
Somewhere along the way, Sheila started increasing and added several columns to the width of her work. Additionally, the edges really didn't quite look as good in the beginning as they do now. To make a long story short, we took her 18 inches of work and frogged it. Yes, unmercifully, I'd say, ripped it completely out and started her over.
I must say, she was quite the trooper over it. I think I cried the first time I ripped out work. Well, okay, maybe not, but it wasn't fun. Sheila just took it in stride and asked for some direction on re-starting the project. The piece was intended as basic instruction anyway, so it had served its purpose. She could now knit and purl on command and on purpose. So we designed her a little something to add some challenge.
Using Microsoft Excel, which in my mind is a knitting pattern designer's dream tool, we gen'd up the basic idea of what she wanted. Of course, I can't tell you what she wanted because it's a surprise. But I will at least give you a clue. You can see the first bit of the pattern above. By the time we finish, we'll have a pattern that tells Sheila exactly when to do what. Rather detailed, I guess, but will give her confidence as a new knitter and keep her from getting lost in what she is doing. I'm anxious for her to give it a try and see how it works. We'll show you the work as it progresses.
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