Two Knitters Walked Into a Bar...

Have you ever done anything really, really stupid as a knitter? Something you're almost too embarrassed to say you did? I hesitate to even tell you, dear reader, and I fear that if I say it I'm sure to do something worse, but here goes...

I'm doing a little "artist's smock" for a fall publication. It has a"paint-splattered" pleat in the back (read: intarsia). On each side of the pleat is a panel of solid. Guess who cast-on four, FOUR FOUR, FOUR fewer stitches than she was supposed to because her husband was talking to her while she cast on? Guess who didn't check for 100 rows? Guess who didn't notice it until she counted each side after the armhole bind-offs? Guess who has a deadline of Wednesday? (YES!! A week from today.)

There is no other solution but to rip.

Pray really hard.

Contemplating the frog

No, no, not frog used as a verb, frog as a noun. I have finished the cape for the fall issue of Knit.1 and am thinking of frogs as closures. Long ago, in the first piece I ever designed (which, in retrospect, was (O)VER(L)Y ambitious -- pleat, frog with crochet-covered button, shawl collar) I used a frog designed by the wonderful Nicky Epstein. It involved knitting I-cord and then contorting it into the correct shape using a diagram and tacking it down into place. It was fairly complicated. This is the original frog. Recently I did a simpler frog when I knit a Rowan pattern (in the Autumn/Winter 2006 issue #40). For this one, the instructions were to single crochet a length of yarn. There was not much twisting and no tucking, just tacking. I need something a little more angular for this job. I'm looking to match the diamond border. I think I'm going with I-cord and a simpler construction, as there will probably be three (or possibly four) frogs. I'll let you know how it turns out.