readerjane

There's a thing when I'm knitting a garment, where I make a little mistake, and decide it's not worth unpicking several rows just to fix it. And then maybe another little mistake, or a bigger one. And then I reach the point where I admit that the best thing to do is to rip it all out and start over, but hey! That gives me the opportunity to change one of the decisions I made early on, which I wasn't so sure about at the time.

I've reached that point with the current pair of socks. I'm learning how to knit socks on circular needles instead of double-pointed needles, and to make them two at a time. The upside is, the socks will come out exactly the same number of rows, because you knit the front side of Sock A, then the front of Sock B, then the back of Sock B and finally the back of Sock A. No worries about unmatched sizing. Another plus, I don't need to own two sets of the same size needle.

Downside is, it's an unfamiliar method and sometimes I'm not sure how to handle a step like turning the heels.

But since the main point of the exercise is to relax, watch fun vids, and enjoy myself (with owning a pair of hand=tailored socks being a side benefit), starting all over again is perfectly fine.

Repentance means turning around and going a different direction. It's something I rarely have the privilege of at work because time is at such a premium; discovering a fundamental error can mean giving up on the way you wanted a project to turn out and compromising for something less, just to be done on time.

That's what makes it such a relief, even a luxury, to be able to start all over.