Massive frogging

For those non-knitter readers of my blog who aren't familiar with the term "frogging," a quick explanation: it means ripping out massive amounts - sometimes all - of your knitting project. The reason? "Rip it, rip it," is reminiscent of the sound we assign to the croak of a frog. (This is distinct from tinking, which is undoing one stitch at a time by knitting backwards -- "tink" is "knit" backwards.) "Frogging" usage examples: "I had to frog all the way back to the waist decreases," "I frogged the whole thing because it turned out too big."

That last one is what I did last night with the Ribbon X-Back. Although I knit to gauge and the measurements seemed technically correct, apparently some yarn needs "negative ease" -- that is, it has to be stretched out (by the wearer's body) to fit correctly, so you knit it smaller than your actual measurements. That seems to be the case with the Crystal Palace Deco Ribbon. So now I'm knitting it much, much smaller, sort of on a wing and a prayer, and hoping it comes out a lot better. Stay tuned.

P.S. I was impressed by how maturely I handled the frogging of an entire project. The silver lining is that it's rather cathartic to rip out knitting. There's something vaguely satisfying about it.