A complicated project looms on the horizon. Which means that first, I’d like to knock out some simpler projects. It’s a good palate-cleanser, and they help clean out the stash.
Poking through the yarn I have on hand, I remembered that I have three skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Cranberry. (This is one of the “staple” yarns that I buy at Joann’s with the monthly 50% off coupon.)
I cast on for Palindrome, a reversible cabled scarf, for the Red Scarf Project. Things went well at first.
According to the pattern, you cable on every sixth row. Not long after this photo was taken, I discovered that I had accidentally cabled on the eighth row. I sighed and ripped it back. (Ripping back cables is one of my Least Favorite Things.)
Not long after that, I discovered that I had accidentally cabled on the fourth row.
WHAT.
Since I’m clearly not capable of reliably counting to six these days, I ripped the whole thing back and stuffed all three skeins of yarn into the back of the tub and we shall never speak of this again THE END.
I so love not being the only one with the inability to count. 5 years of Calculus and adding, counting, division is HARD.
I find it especially difficult to count when knitting in the round, not that you can use that excuse. When I made a Palindrom for the RSP I used a row counter. Cheating? I think not; merely sanity-saving.
I’ve made two Palindromes. I found that the knitting went so fast that I was always going “Already???” when it was time to cable again. Very easy to lose count when the rows flash by.
Cat Bordhi suggests using a scrap of contrast-colored yarn as a row counter: cable, flip to front; cable, flip to back. It makes a little dotted line on each side, and is MUCH easier to count than “Did i cable row 3 or 4? Four or 5?”
There’s also the “charmingly random” option, AKA “It’s a feature, not a bug!” I use that one all the time, since I clearly can’t count.
I don’t cable very often because of the counting issue! I did figure out to poke the needle into the “heart” of the cable twist and count ladders between the two needles. On the other hand, a counting “chain” with number beads works great, too. You make a wire or fiber chain with links big enough for your needles and with number/alpha beads (123456, ABCDEF, OTHFIS). Each time you pass the counter to the working needle, move to the next link; cable when out of links.
When you said you ripped out that beautify scarf, my heart nearly broke!
Erika, I have to say this made me giggle. I love your reaction! Nothing like acting like a frustrated four-year-old to make everything better!
I have a hard time counting any higher than four – a fact that would probably cause consternation amongst my clients. But honestly. Read a chart that randomly has five, six, seven colors in a row. (Okay, I concede that it is possibly not random. But you can’t prove it by me.)