Last night was no exception, although I think we were a bit more focused on the commiseration component!! For some reason (I'm going with the weather pressure!!), we were more silent than usual and completely focused on knitting projects that were throwing challenges and hurdles at each of us.
Susan's "red thing" (emphasis, with disdain, on the "thing"!) has seen repeated tinking and reknitting, and was on the final lap. We could hear cheering as it was rounding that final corner and heading into the home stretch. The finish line was in sight. The crowd was cheering..... (okay, really, that was me saying "You can do it, you'll be fine...").... and that, my friends, is where the trouble started!! Those three words: "you'll be fine".... resonating with encouragement, optimism and hope.... can come back to bite you in the -- um, skein -- before you know it.Susan had calculated the yarn required for casting off. I know because we had measured it when it was tinked in a previous iteration. She measured, and re-measured, and measured again, with me laughing in the background saying, "Okay Susan, stop measuring and start knitting. You'll be fine!".
And she did. Susan started the cast off on the lovely "red thing". Cheers erupted from our imaginary crowd. My sock project was tapping its toes in anticipation. The blocking mats were applauding in the distance. The pins were pointing with excitement! (....okay, I'll stop!)
Perhaps my words of (what were truly meant to be) encouragement was a reflection on how things were not happening for me, and how desperately I wanted it to be okay for Susan. I was working on a pair of socks (two at a time on two circular needles), and had struggled to complete three rows on my socks.... three! And even in that Herculean effort, I ended up transferring needles twice to deal with a stitch that had to "switch sides" on a circular needle. I finished the three rows and put it away, pulling out another pair of socks as an alternate project....only to promptly drop six stitches down three rows on the end of one of them -- of course, it involved twisted stitches. It took me the rest of the night to fix those, and I didn't dare pick up another project just to screw it up too! (For the record, all is well again, and I'm ready to make progress on both projects).
So, Susan is diligently casting off. Every few stitches, she reaches for the remaining yarn and holds it up with eyebrow raised, and a questioning look thrown in my direction. "You'll be fine" was my response.... until almost half way through the cast off. Susan's look changed from one of shared hopeful optimism to "Are you crazy!?! Seriously?!?" Time to admit defeat (...and yes, I purposely missed that opportunity to pun with "de-feet" in deference to my sock project).
We measured the yarn that remained from the yards and yards she had at the start of the cast off.... Nope. It. Was. Not. Going. To. Be. Fine.
Guilt. That's what motivated me to offer to tink (for those who may not know, that's "knit" backwards!) back the cast-off, but Susan declined my offer. She said she'd tackle it after a quick trip to the ladies' room. Moments later, Susan is laughing so hard, I'm sure there were tears... you know, those fun moments when someone's laughter is so contagious, you start laughing even though you have no idea what you're laughing about?
Apparently, someone had chosen to write graffitti on the back of the washroom stall door, and these were the words that caused Susan (and I) to laugh out loud:It's going to be OK.
We laughed and laughed, and at that point, we figured out a way to do the cast-off with the yarn Susan had. It is going to be okay!!
