Bad knitter (slap hand)...

I know, I know....I'm supposed to actually READ the pattern thru before beginning to knit. I realize there's an actual purpose for doing so, that I can save myself a lot of grief and anguish and clenched teeth, if I just READ the pattern.

But did I READ the pattern? ALL the way thru?

This is my first sweater, the Central Park Hoodie from the most recent Knitscene. I am loving the pattern, I love the yarn (well, as much as you can love acrylic - I'm using Simply Soft Tweed in Autumn Red - hey I'm on a budget!), especially the color, I like the fact that I'm learning cables and these aren't too difficult...

But I'm just so excited to be knitting my first ever sweater, in a pattern that I just love, and since its actually a little chilly when I do the paper route in the mornings, I've been a little, shall we say, rushed, to get this thing finished. So when I saw that I needed to knit the back until it was 14 1/2", and I got to that point, I figured I'd just keep going...after all, I wanted to make it a little larger than the pattern called for - just a little longer, not much - and the length just didn't look right.

Mistake #1 - Not reading the pattern thru and not checking the schematic (did I mention this is my first sweater?)

So how much more did I knit past the 14 1/2" mark? Only five extra inches (I got a little carried away with the process of knitting)...before I actually looked at the schematic and realized that 14 1/2" is just the length from the bottom of the back to the beginning of the armholes.
I've decided its not worth it to rip it out. Yes, it will be longer than I wanted, but I think I have enough yarn - I ordered extra.

So I just kept going.

Today at lunch (I usually try to knit at my desk) I started binding off the armholes. The pattern calls for four rows in which you are binding off, then one decrease row, followed by one regular pattern row, then another decrease row. I should have known better than to try to attempt this part of the pattern at my desk, when my boss was trying to get things together to go out of town tomorrow and my lunch hour was more of a working lunch hour. But did I mention how badly I want to wear this sweater?

So I knit the two bind off rows, and the first decrease row. It was while knitting the third row (the regular pattern row) that I realized I hadn't knitted the previous decrease row correctly. No problem, said I, the super-inexperienced knitter - I can just decrease a stitch on this row and no one will be the wiser. After all, its the armholes - who's going to know?

Mistake #2: Knitting at my desk at lunch

Yeah, you guessed it...I decreased a stitch on the wrong end. The decrease should have been on the beginning of the row I was currently knitting.

So tonight I get to frog that row and part of the previous row and actually knit the end of the decrease row correctly. Honestly not such a big deal, just a pain and wasted time that could be spent actually making progress on this thing, not going backwards. I also get to sit and READ THE PATTERN THRU to hopefully prevent another stupid time consuming mistake on the sleeves, front panels, and hood.

And now I'm panicking that I won't have enough yarn, since I now have to make both the front and the back 5 inches larger than the pattern called for. But this isn't making me sad at all. I mean, why be upset when I have the opportunity to buy more yarn? :-) This is NEVER a bad thing.