Sometimes it rains

So, this knitting thing.

It's more forgiving than some other crafts (if all else fails, you can rip it out and start over). It's less forgiving than some other crafts (all of your work to fit a knitted garment must be done before you start knitting the garment, and if you get it wrong you have to rip it out and start over).

Sometimes you wing it and it all comes out wrong. This is no real surprise. Sometimes, you wing it and everything comes out right, but you can't remember exactly what you did, so you can't replicate it. Sometimes you get half-smart and do the knitterly equivalent of an outline and notes. Then, regardless of whether the first attempt comes out right or wrong, you have an idea of what you did.

In short, it's like baseball -- sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes, it rains.

I was trying to be half-smart when I cooked up the 'pattern' for a dress for the Night Elf Huntress/Doll #12. I measured the doll. I considered my stitch and row gauge. I looked at stitch counts for existing patterns for clothes for that particular doll. I made notes. Only then did I start knitting.

Then I put the dress down for a bit for some reason and came back to it the other night. I knitted along happily until I realised that something was not right. Profoundly, uncorrectably not right.

Well drat, thought I. I have miscalculated. So I ripped out, rewound the yarn, and pulled out my notes to add corrections.

Except, as I discovered, the flaw was not in the plan. Had I done what I put down in my notes, everything would, in fact, have been fine. But because I hadn't looked at my notes since I'd made them, I did something different and it all came out wrong.

Thus it may be seen: making a plan before you start knitting only counts as half smart if you actually follow the plan. Ignoring (or forgetting) the plan sends you right back to the land of dumb.

My slice of cold comfort is that I am reassured that that the plan itself is good. I just need to remember to stick to it.