DAY FIFTY EIGHT

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. We've all heard the old adage. 

I'm not sure how much I believe in it. Of course giving up at the very first hurdle is probably a bit daft; no one should expect to get a new activity perfectly right first time out. But let's say you've tried and failed at something fifteen times, or fifty. It would then seem reasonable to throw the towel in and find something better suited to your talents and interests. 

Which brings us to my history with knitting. 

It is a case of always succeeding in the end but by gum it can be a tortuous path getting there. 

The picture is of the start of my latest endeavour, a sort of tam-o-shanter cum beret, from a pattern I actually bought from a newish designer. It doesn't look like much now I'm just on the ribbing for the brim, but it will end up with twelve segments coming together to form the crown.

Now so far there have been five attempts at casting on. It's an unusual style of cast on in the first place and then for a 2x2 rib you have to rearrange every third stitch. Both techniques are new to me and took some getting used to. But the techniques do not account for the fact of counting the intial number of stitches wrong not once, but three times. Yes these old eyes aren't all they once were but all the same! 

On about the third attempt, before I realised it was the wrong number of stitches, (though the rib not working should have been telling me something), I decided to just live with the fact of it looking a jumble but the next morning my resolve broke and I frogged it all back in order to start again. 

I won't extend this tail of woe. Safe to say the hat will get finished in one form or another, eventually. Wether it will ever be worn is another thing entirely. It may just end up in the bin.

Onwards...tortuously.