Another Benefit of Knitting

Knitting does a lot of good things. It keeps the brain active. It develops fine motor skills. It supports a slew of small businesses. It keeps me from killing people in a waiting room. It allows me to show people how much I value them in a concrete, unique way. It provides patterns for the cat to lie on while I'm trying to knit in the evening.

It also keeps me humble.

I'm knitting the requested Packers hat. No problem. I'm doing four-row stripes, and I'm knitting the first row in every stripe so my purl bumps don't show. I'm slipping the correct stitch to make a jogless stripe.

I'm rocking this hat, in other words.

This afternoon at lunch, I smugly get ready to decrease.

Round 1 done.

Round 2 - Huh. This doesn't line up the way I'd expect. Still, it's probably right.

Oh. I've run out of stitches but haven't yet run out of pattern instructions.
I'll just tink (unknit) this row.

No, I probably don't need to tink the whole round. I'll just adjust on the next round.

Except I can't figure out how to do the next round since the first two don't line up. 
No problem. I'll tink the second decrease round.

Huh. I still can't figure out why this doesn't line up.

I'll tink the first round.

No, that's silly. Surely I don't need to tink the entire round. 

I'll reknit those stitches I took out.

Um, I still can't figure out how to fudge round 2.

This went on for longer than I care to admit. Of course, I ended up tinking both decrease rounds completely. When I started round 1 again, I realized that I had been doing something entirely different than what was written. What I was thinking, I don't know, but there was no way I was ever going to be able to fudge those.

After a half an hour, it still pretty much looks like this:

Cambridge Watchcap (mine ravelled here),

knit in Berocco Vintage, 5152 and 5121

Thanks, knitting. I probably was getting a little overinflated.