(Please note: there are NO affiliate links in this post.)

Oh my goodness. By the sixteenth of this month, I began to think that I should gracefully (and fitfully) bow out of the Great Green KAL. Luckily, I did not and as yet I have not.

I decided when it came time to pick up my needles to use a less expensive and … hardier yarn…to test knit my first Love Note.

I planned to use Knit Picks Brava Sport. I love the Fig colorway, so that is what I pulled out to use. Given that the sweater is supposed to have a great deal of ease built into it, I wasn’t worried about swatching. (I know–I’m a bad girl–but that’s how I roll…)

Now, I swear to you I read the pattern–I have been reading that pattern like good fiction, over and over, for months. The pattern itself. The description on Ravelry. The description on Tin Can Knits website…even the ‘In-Depth Tutorial’ they provide on the website as well. Plus, notes from other knitters on Ravelry about the Love Notes they knit. Because this is what I do. The Great Green KAL was merely a push to knit one up right now instead of dreaming about doing it once I find a minute to do it…

So, that first knit, I cast on — with the wrong needles, using the wrong cast on. How did i miss “provisional cast-on”? Honestly, I do not know. So, I cast on again, this time provisionally–again with the wrong needles. I said screw this…I was not prepared to start over at that point and knit a bit longer before I decided if I was going to screw up a sweater so early on, I might as well not bother trying — who knows what picking up too small stitches would do to my neckline once I got to that part. So–I frogged her out again. Third time is a charm, right? I cast on, with the appropriate needles, using a provisional cast-on. I worked the pattern exactly as written…then it was time to start the lacework.

The lacework is not at all complicated. I quickly memorized the first of the ten rows of the lace pattern. The second row didn’t take too much out of me. Then the third row…and for some reason, between the chattering of my son and the cryptid tales on television (one of his favorite things to watch and to hear about) I frogged back three different repeats on row three…and when I got to the end of that row, well, round, technically, I saw that I had screwed up royally somewhere along the line. At that point, I called it–because I knew even simple lacework like this would be an issue for me going forward because my brain is mush. (Keep in mind, I tend to knit at night too, which I know does not help).

Frogged again, for the third time. I called it on the Love Note for now. Although I know next time i work this sweater up, I will have no issues getting the thing started, using the correct needles to do the correct cast-on.

Came back the next day and decided to do a totally different pattern. Printed out a couple. When my head started to swim reading the first pattern I had printed out, I called it again and decided to trust in Flax and Tin Can Knits.

I have made two Flax sweaters now, so I was hopeful the project would be simple and I could catch up to where I thought I ought to be in the KAL.

Whelp…the first time, I had ten rounds of 1×1 ribbing complete and it looked beautiful. (And yes, still using the Fig Brava Sport yarn here.) Started my increases…and somewhere along the line missed adding in six stitches to the increase round…and forgot to start the garter stitch panel. I thought if I were careful I could just tink back to the end of the ribbing section…but, alas, with the aid of a dog in desperate need of affection (seventy-six pounds of intrusive shepherd-saluki mix nosing her way into everything for the sake of being loved on) and the requests of the boy to do this, get that, go there…I frogged the entire thing back to the very beginning.

I called it a night. Such was my exhaustion. At that point I was reaching the place where I seriously thought I would simply return to the coffee shop wrap I had set aside and finish that…the next day…not that night.

I cast on again the next day…worked up my ten rounds of 1×1 ribbing. I may hate the 1×1 rib, but I am sure getting good at doing it, I must say. No issues. Ok. Had the same mishap with my increase round…I lacked six stitches, but quickly figures out how to add them in the next round without any issues. I made sure I put in the garter stitch panel. I kept the counts right. Halfway through all of the increases, I happened to look at the garter stitch panels…I had not kept quite to the pattern as I thought I had…seems I had issues figuring out if I was on an increase (and purl) row or a knit all the way through row.

I frogged it again. Contemplated chucking that single skein of yarn in the trash (or at least the part I had knit and reknit and reknit again repeatedly). Took a deep breath. Cast-on yet again and started to work the 1×1 ribbing. Did I mention how good at knitting this rib I am getting? Or how much I HATE doing 1×1 ribbing? Did I?

Once I again when I got to the increase round, I messed up the count, but corrected it in the next row. I decided to skip the garter stitch panel because obviously my feeble brain is not keeping up with such things–even though this time I am ticking off round 1 when I work it and then round 2 when I work it…instead of just one tick for both rows–so I know where I am when.

Nothing is stopping me this time around.

I am not having any other issues. Plus, I have knit this sweater before–and I probably will again. At this point, I am going to be happy to FINISH this one sweater in time for the deadline for the KAL.

And how is YOUR week going?

Let me know in the comments below.

(Pictures will be forth-coming. I keep forgetting to take them before I frog, lol.)