overcoming fear

the fear of frogging, that is.

i started working on this bag quite a while ago. i've gotten really far. as a matter of fact, it's just about done. usually something being in the state of "almost done" spurs me on to finish it in a hurry, but this one's been sitting in the bottom of my knitstuff basket for weeks and weeks. as a matter of fact, i was considering it a failed project.

i started it for my mum. she saw this picture of the original booga bag, and said she liked the colors a lot, despite the fact that i had called them garish and obnoxious. "are you sure?" i asked. "sure! it's nice and bright," she said. and there you have it.

so i set out to work the felted madeline bag with this yarn. it would make up for the true failure of making one out of yarn that doesn't felt. i put the vomitous brown color on the bottom, where it wouldn't be seen (and it wouldn't show dirt), and worked my way up. little did i know that would put the pukey-brown in the perfect position to re-appear on the flap, where it would cover up all the "nice and bright" colors. see how that works? then i ran out of yarn several inches shy of having a complete handle.

say, why didn't i notice that ugly brown on the booga bag? oh, because its circumference is so much bigger the brown just appears in passing. dangit. it's very prominent on this pattern.

well today i wanted to free up those needles for a new project (perhaps something in pink for one of my pinkaholic friends), and suddenly it occurred to me. i can solve both of my problems (ran out of yarn, vomit-colored flap dominating the color scheme) if i buy a new skein and knit a new flap and the rest of the handle— after frogging the old flap.

for those of you who don't knit (which is all of you but puffintoad), frogging means ripping out stitches by grabbing the end of your yarn and just pulling. you can watch your work melt away before your very eyes. it can be rather disheartening. oh, and it's called that because frogs say, "rip it. rip it." silly, i know, but i didn't make it up.

i've noticed mistakes in my irish hiking scarf and had to frog inches and inches back to correct them. after that, frogging this little bitty flap seems like no big deal at all. i don't know what i was afraid of. evidently, i've overcome my fear of frogging.

hey, it's a step.