I'm currently working on Ms. Marigold by Zephyr Style and now that I've joined in the round, I'm getting bored knitting round and round so I thought I'd mix it up by knitting the neckline ribbing and then coming back to the body.
So I went and bought (what I thought was) an appropriately sized needle (the pattern calls for size 5 and 3 needles and since I'm using 7's for the 5's to meet the gauge, I figured I needed a 5 instead of the 3) and came home and started picking up stitches. The pattern warns to make sure to pick up enough that the neckline doesn't pucker when you knit it so I picked up A LOT of stitches. I didn't think much of it, though, as the pattern warns you that you will have a lot of stitches. In the end I spent 3 hours (3 hours!!!) just picking up the stitches. Several more hours of knitting ribbing later, I cast off and viola! I have....wait....a ruffle? Sometime between picking up and casting off, a ruffle assassinated my neckline and took its place.
I think out of fear I wouldn't pick up enough, I picked up WAY too many stitches and now I'm going to have to frog hours of knitting on this stupid neckline so I can try again (but I think I'll finish the body first).
In (somewhat) happier news, my new ball winder came in the mail yesterday. This will come in handy for when I frog my wicked sweater (the sleeves are entirely too large and as this is a top-down sweater, I don't see how this is fixable) and my husband's Christmas sweater (which came out too large in some parts and too small in others. Plus it looks funny).
Anybody else noticing a pattern? Yeah. I feel like a friggin' muggle. At this point I NEED Ms. Marigold to turn out okay lest I resign myself to only knitting socks, hats, and baby clothes from now on (these seem to have turned out okay....adult sweaters? Not so much). That, and I think my husband is starting to wonder why I spend hours knitting things only to have them not fit and so I just end up unraveling them.
***ding ding ding***
There goes my timer. I guess it's time for my pity party to be up.
Here's a picture of a cupcake to cheer you up:
