rough week last week...

last week was a real bummer of a week. nothing ACTUALLY horrible or tragic, just a bunch of crafting problems. but when you're me, that's a MAJOR bummer. so this is my venting post, and hopefully it will be cathartic, so then I'm going to post my redemption...
first up: a pair of socks for my grandfather-in-law.
see the fancy cable pattern? yeah, so it turns out I TOTALLY can't read cable charts. thought I could, after all, I can read lace charts, but cable charts are WAY beyond me. (It might have helped to mark my stopping points, so I could KNOW where I was when I restarted, rather than guessing.... maybe next time?)

so I frogged that. (btw, notice the knitting needle in the upper right? it's a size 1. the lighter colored piece of wood is a TOOTHPICK! do you know how long it takes to knit 3 inches of sock on TOOTHPICKS!)
Then, thinking I was on a roll, I drafted and tested a really cute 1930's frock (so much cuter than a dress), for the bean.... and my sewing skills were NOT up to par:

see the puckering?
I finally basted the inset in by hand, and then sewed it... it's better, but all the manhandling I did (sewing then ripping then sewing, times 3 or 4) has made this totally not good enough... but it was a good lesson to learn! (also learned that I need to use a small directional print on the bias for the bodice)
and lastly, I was working on a sweater for the Bean, but I also had to frog that, after hours of knitting (albeit on larger needles this time!)

so... hopefully all the bad is well past, and next up I have some super cute success stories to share!
(I think failures are as important to record as successes...don't you?)