hawaiian car knitting

I just returned from one of cake genius's parties (she is my older sister, and master of all things cake baking and decorating...I mean, the girl has MAD skills.) She had a luau at her place north of Columbus, Ohio and it was an insanely great time....It also allowed for 4 straight hours of knitting on "the sweater that will not die" each way. Unfortunately, due to my recent undying hatred of Moss stitch, I think I may have only finished 4 repeats of the pattern during this time frame. I was really proud of myself for not chucking it out the window on 71, but I am starting to believe that 85% of the problem is that my needles just aren't up to spec...I think I need some seriously pointy wooden needles instead of the super-slick semi-dull Inox that I'm using. We'll see what happens when I get better needles.

As for the party, cake genius outdid herself! The girl and Mr. Cake genius had 47 satisfied guests for pulled pork barbecue, fun luau decorations, yard games, great drinks, fantastic desserts, and massive quantities of Rock Band and Wii on dueling televisions till 2am. Wowza!

To frog or not to frog?

After another night of gritting my teeth and boldly knitting onward on the Minimalist Cardigan I find myself asking the following question:

At what point is the knitting of an object so dreadful that you decide that although you know that you could trudge along to complete the project, you find that it just isn't worth it?

At what point do you slap the mat and tell the world...Nope. I'm done! Its a pretty finished object, but it just ain't worth it?

I freaking HATE to knit moss stitch. I know this now with every fiber of my being. It is one fine looking sweater, but is it in the cards for me? Right now, I'm hanging in there out of sheer willpower and spite (who wants to say that a sweater beat them?) but I'm seriously eyeing the exit. I'm not even half way up the back panel of this bad boy...one heck of a stretch of moss that stands between me and the finish line...

Gah!

If I continue on at this rate, knitting one repeat of the pattern a night, (with about 20 minutes of knitting on another non-dreaded project in between each moss repeat to allow me to regain my sanity) by my calculations this sweater will take roughly fifty blue-million years to complete.

Double Gah!

But....can't...let...the...sweater.....beat....me.....must......continue!

(at least for tonight)

Moss stitch can bite my big toe.

Moss stitch is not my best friend. Sure, its pretty. Sure, it makes a really nice fabric that I love, love, love to look at...But knitting it! gah!

It is one of those patterns that is such a stinky little tease! You knit one row, and its ok, you feel pretty good about it...It flows well off the needles, but then every other row makes me want to drop kick the little bugger to Pluto.

I grit my teeth.

I growl.

I whine and complain.

Then I hit the next row and think, Hey...Maybe this isn't so bad.

Then I hit the next row...

More whine.

More growl.

Big time teeth grittin'.

Then its back to good again. It's a make up/ break up relationship with this pattern! Its middle school "check this box" style love with this sweater. Ah, the minimalist cardigan.

I do believe the sweater is trying to break me.