Perfectionist

I started and finished a scarf this last week.  It was super hot and I enjoyed having an inside project.  I had to do it in and around our latest guests. 

 

They were only here two days, but you have to clean, make beds and set out fresh towels.

 

Then you have to fix something to welcome them each afternoon and set out fresh towels after the first night.  Not to mention the meal planning, grocery buying and then making and serving said breakfast.

 

These were the first guests that came specifically to be HERE.  Others have come here for weddings or graduations. 

 

Some have stopped here on their way to somewhere else or just passing through.  I hope we gave them a great, relaxing vacation.  They left some very nice remarks in our guest book, so I think we did.

 

The night before their last day, I finished my latest knitting project.  A beautiful, shiny, midnight blue, grapevine lace scarf.  It's hard to tell in the light from the late evening, but it is just a beautiful color.  Then I wove in the loose ends, sprayed it with water and stretched it out flat to block it and let it dry. 

 

Then the worst thing happened. (cue Jaws, or maybe even Psycho music) I discovered a GLARING flaw in the scarf.  When you are knitting scarfs, they frequently curl up on the edges.  This scarf had a very dark yarn and it was hard to see the details of the pattern.  But when I blocked it and had it all flat and in bright light, I noticed I had made an error.  ( cue curse word of choice,  not the worst one but the next one down)  An entire ROW of an error.

 

Luckily, it was fairly close to one end.  Had it been at the beginning, I would have just let it go.  I have no idea how to unravel and knit backwards. But it was close to the finished end.  I stressed about it all night.

The plan was to give it as a gift.  You have to figure which person to give it to.  Then you have to figure, who won't notice?  Or you can tell them about it and hope they wear it even with all the flaws.  I don't have good friends and then second tier friends, to whom I could give a second rate gift, so I HAD to fix it.

 

I snipped the corner where I wove in the last tail of yarn.  I unraveled the scarf, keeping track of which row I was on, for the sake of the pattern. 

 

Then I slid the knitting needles back in, keeping a crochet hook handy to pick up any dropped stitches, and re knit the scarf to the appropriate length and finished it AGAIN.  And blocked it AGAIN.

 

And now I can give it with a happy heart and I hope it will be well used and enjoyed.  And, dare I say it, loved?