Continuing My Journey into the Depths of Misery.

Took me way too long to figure out which pattern to use and where it should go.

The crafting process to give my knitting needles a home goes on this week and if I felt mildly frustrated last week, this time around I felt like ripping the fabric to shreds, and I would have except doing that would destroy hours of my work and upset me even more.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of my misery, let me introduce you to Zelda:

Pretty girl.

Technically, Zelda is not mine, it belongs to an old co-worker of mine. Two years ago, I asked her if I could borrow her sewing machine to make a Halloween costume, she obliged and I happily took it home and made my costume.

Slutty sushi!

Then I conveniently forgot to return Zelda to her and then I moved and then I forgot again and now Zelda lives with me. IMPORTANT NOTE: I do intend to return Zelda to her rightful owner--and definitely before we move even further from Seattle. So there. It's not like I'm holding Zelda hostage or something. Zelda totally loves staying with me.

Ahem.

So, this week I worked on putting together the inner pocket, where the needles will go, and the other panel. Up until this point, I've read over the directions multiple times just to make sure that I didn't miss anything. WELL. It's definitely one thing to read it and know what you are doing and then to execute it successfully. The instructions noted a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Simple enough, I thought, except I completely overestimated my ability to measure things. Did I learn nothing from last week? This is what it looks like when you think you sewed with a 1/2 seam allowance only to go back and remeasure and realize you were juuuuussssst a bit off.

So close.

It would be one thing if I realized this on the first piece I sewed together, and to a certain extent I noticed that it didn't seem QUITE like a half-inch, but instead of measuring it exactly I said, "Fuck this" and sewed all the pieces together. It wasn't until I got to the end that I realized maybe I should have listened to that little voice inside me saying to measure it exactly. So yes, I had to go back and add a tiny 1/8th of an inch-or so to all the panels. But the biggest insult of the day was to come later.

The semi-completed inner pockets

The biggest, hair-ripping-out-est insult occurred when I put together the outside panel. Remember that last week I had to fudge the numbers a bit and re-work the proportions because I wasn't paying attention to what I was cutting out. This week, my terrible math skills came to a head:

The finished panel is supposed to be the same size as the inner panel (obviously), which, when finished, measures 19x22 inches. I CAME UP AN INCH SHORT. DAMMMMMIT. Adding insult to injury, I actually cut out a 1.5x22 strip in case I came up short, but given the seam allowances, it would have been too short as well. I suppose I could use a smaller seam allowance, but I JUST GOT USED TO THAT 1/2 INCH SEAM ALLOWANCE.

It was at this point that I decided that it was enough for one day. I will work on cutting out another panel next week and I will probably finish it up then (hopefully). Until then, here is what the (mostly) finished outer panel looks like:

Perhaps my knitting needles are better off living in a plastic bag, like hobos.