Friday, June 25, 2010

Ribbit!

I remember reading through Stitch n' Bitch way back in college when I first got a copy.  Somewhere in there Debbie Stoller explained the origin of term 'frogging' for ripping back.  My mind must be going because I can't remember if she said its because somehow the noise of ripping back a project resembles the noise frogs make or that 'rip it' and 'ribbit' sound similar.  It must be the latter.  I've heard plenty of frogs and they do not sound at all like the sad little noise of ripping out knitting.  Frogs are actually quite loud, especially when its summer and you're trying to sleep in a house that's next to a marsh.

Regardless of the origin of the term, I am currently faced with having to do some frogging myself.  Below is my Somewhat Cowl, which has been keeping me company while I listen to bar review lectures.


While I working on it, I started to think it was coming out a touch too big, and that perhaps my gauge had changed when I switched to knitting in the round.  Turns out I was right.  I decided to wash the incomplete body to check on everything and my gauge is looser on the lower half of the sweater.  I tired on the sweater and, as I expected, in the back there's a loose flab of fabric.  Sometimes, its hard being right.  

Of course, this issue was possibly made worse by my inability to count.  I added a couple stitches because I thought I needed to have the right number for the ribbing.  Turns out I was wrong about that the number.  I fudged the ribbing a bit since I was feeling lazy.

Now I could ignore the extra fold of fabric.  Its not so bad as to be unwearable. Actually most people probably wouldn't even notice it.  But I still have a few more weeks of bar lectures and if you're going to knit a sweater you might as well do it right.  So my poor little somewhat cowl shall be partially frogged.  

But at least I have pretty socks that are going well to knit on the beach this weekend.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one crafting through bar review! I've been watching at home lately, but for the first few weeks I brought my crochet to the grim UHa auditorium. So many people were like "What are you doing?? It looks relaxing!"