Coffee is getting cold

This Level I project, this hat, is making me crazy, while my coffee gets cold.

I added the cream yarn when I began the body of the hat, after the ribbing (yesterday's pictures and post.)

As soon as I got to the end of round 1, back to the cream (remember, I'm knitting around and around, not back and forth), I had to refer to the instructions to discover a new technique.  I applied the new technique and went happily on with round after round of cream yarn.

But each time I encountered the section that included the color transition technique I just knew it was wrong.  Then I tortured myself knitting round after round, each time meeting up with that new technique and just knowing deep down in my knitting bones that it was still wrong.  But maybe one more round of knitting and it will magically come right the next time I encounter it.

Nope.  So the morning was spent taking out rows of cream, adding back a row or two, re-reading the new technique and applying it, and finally! getting to add another color.

Here's the hat after this morning's adventure.

New color, right side and wrong side.

You should see two rows of cream after the pink ribbing.  Then a few rows of a darker mulberry or something.  There's the right side, and just because you might be curious, a bit of the back side showing how the colors interact on the wrong side.











There's always a story in the journey and this trip included several time-consuming detours.

First I realized the transition technique from pink to cream was wrong.  You can see it, I know.

Yucky, there's no other word.  The pink stitch is twisted
and the loose ends are on the right side instead
of cluttering the back.

Also a ruffle of stitches with no needle.  Can't leave this too long.
Danger!

Here's the hat when I took it off the needle to pull out the cream stitches back to the mistake so I could start over from that point.  Scary to have untethered stitches just lying there.  They tend to get lost, tangled, and rearranged.

Stitches with no needles, little loose loops all around the edge.
Can't leave this sit or even think about stuffing it into a
UFO box.  All those loose stitches will come undone.
You've surely had a scarf or glove or sweater unravel?

That was also the time to acknowledge I was running out of cream yarn.  The striping I originally designed would not become a reality.  Knowing I had a new, unused ball of a darker pink/wine, I redesigned the striping.  I pulled out all the cream, back to the first row of this color, put the stitches back on the needle and tried it again.  Just two rows, which means I must use that new color transition technique.

I doubt you'll be able to see it.  It's correct this time and the point is that the transition between one color and the next is 'invisible.'  Here's the close-up -- 

The long white stitch in the center actually takes up
two rows of stitching.  I'll fuss with the nearby stitches
when I steam and block the hat, so they will nestle
into the row the way they need to.

This is just a hat, after all.  It's also a project that Master Knitters will examine closely to evaluate the quality of my knitting, the use of the color transition technique, and my choice of colors for contrast and style.  

Meanwhile, the coffee has gone cold.

The silver lining in this morning's knitting cloud was knowing that I knew how to fix it, to make it right.  We don't get a chance to make it right very often in life.  And seldom, if ever, do we get to pick out the bad parts from before and re-do them.  We just gotta live with our own wonderful, silly, human self.