Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like a complete waste of planetary space? I wish I could acquire the knack for saying “Screw it, I’m not gonna get anything done today regardless — might as well go have some fun.” Instead, I spend the whole day trying to force something useful out of myself and failing. And by nightfall I just utterly despise myself and know I’ll toss and turn all night as a result. It’s completely obnoxious of me. But such was my day on Saturday. Raising my irritation level was that, as evening rolled around and I was ready to knit, there was nothing in my overflowing bucket of WIPs that sounded mollifying. I’m back to that state of having way too many things half-knitted, which generally means none of them are lighting me up — hence the casting on of more and more projects. My husband was determined to watch The Hobbit, which I have zero interest in, so it was an opportunity to focus 100% on something else, and I decided: It was time for Acer.

I’d knitted the ribbing for the waist here and there over the past month but hadn’t yet dug into the lace charts. In my already crabby state it seemed like a very bad idea, and yet in I went. It took me more than an hour (and no small amount of cussing) to do the setup row, as I counted my stitches over and over and over and over — nothing out of place, and yet I was one stitch short at the end of the row. (And it wasn’t a problem with my cast-on, or my ribbing would have been off!) Once I was convinced every stitch within the charted sections was exactly as it should be, I threw caution to the wind and did a kfb in the last stitch to make up for the one that apparently fell into the Bermuda Triangle. Then I turned the work over and was struck by the realization that I was not only going to have to work the charts backwards, obviously, but I’d have to work out which charts I was working the backs of, and in what order. Hanging my head, I asked again why I was doing this at this moment. But I took a minute and a deep breath, made some notes, and plowed ahead.

Eight fast and flawless rows later my self-hatred had been replaced with a remarkable sense of accomplishment. Not that it helped the to-do list situation, but still, I slept like a baby.

.

This week’s ICYMI post: New Favorites: Little sweaters — maybe I’ll get one (or both) of these made this year!

.