A Well-Deserved Smiting

There is a fine line between "faith" and "failure to see the obvious."  Faith is when you forge ahead believing in the rightness of your course of action and a willingness to risk that which you value with utter confidence in things turning out the way they should.

The latter is less noble and probably related to either some form of brain damage or pure laziness.  Either way, it usually does not go well.

I re-knit the neckline on the dishcloth (with sleeves) today.  Excepting for the fact that I rearranged the stitches to allow for a couple of buttons up the back, I did everything exactly the same way that I did it the first time.  And, just like the first time, the neck is too small.  In fact, I have something that looks far more turtleneck-y than even I could have anticipated.  And it's not like I haven't had some experience with this already...

At the time, I suppose I was thinking that I was performing an act of faith.  Perhaps I truly believed that Happy Thoughts would be enough to spare me a second round of head and neck trauma.  Even as I looked at it and knew the truth of the matter, I still began merrily knitting up the ribbing.  I seem to recall saying something like, "Oh, I'm sure that it will look bigger once it's off the needles.  These things always do..."

Except when they don't.

We'll be ripping it out again and stopping with the decreases at that point where I know it is right to do so.  Any and all further attempts at Faith-Based Knitting will henceforth cease.  Faith without common sense and a little bit of personal responsibility is a disaster waiting to happen.  I think that a second round of ripping should serve nicely as a reminder of that fact.

I should probably also mention that the ripping of this neckline might have gone a bit more smoothly had I not already cast off.  This will be loads of fun.  We'll just consider it extra reinforcement in the learning process...

I don't know whether to be vexed or a little bit relieved, if you want the truth.  The Dark Forces That Hate It When I Knit Anything With Sleeves were bound to pay a visit at some point.  To have their most vicious smiting over and done with is kind of nice.  I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Unless, of course, I do.  But I don't want to think about that.  I just want to finish my dishcloth (with sleeves) and I think I need to be a little closer to my Happy Place for that to happen.  If I look really sorry and stuff, I'm pretty sure that the DFTHIWIKAWS will be appeased.  

At least I had a diversion during all this mishandling of good judgement.  In return for my loaning her two of my Zombie Invasion Preparedness Training Films, the school secretary handed off a DVD from her own collection on Friday.  I hadn't had a chance to see Hot Fuzz but, since it comes to us courtesy of the nice people who made Shaun Of The Dead, it was one I'd had on the to-view list for a while.  It was most entertaining even if it didn't have any zombies or anything.  

Any day you get to see a mild-mannered English granny break out the heavy artillery is probably going to be a good one...

The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty missed all this, though.  It seems that he has taken Mommy's lectures regarding the coming of winter and the need for all kitties in the manse to sleep in the bed lest we freeze to death at night rather seriously.  He has dutifully been snoozing at my feet most nights just like we discussed.  

And during the daylight hours, he practices sleeping at my feet.  He's a perfectionist...

It's probably just as well.  I'm certain that he would have liked the movie and all.  But to see Mommy's leap of faith end in a crash 'n burn might have been traumatic for the poor little guy.

SA