Once upon a time, when I was young and stupid, I bought a kit for a cardigan I fell in love from the Ram Wools catalog. (This was about 16 years ago, so the pattern isn't anywhere online that I can find.) It was a darling little number that I knew I couldn't live without, even though it cost $100. I was a beginner, still, but very much headstrong and stubborn. I knew nothing about gauge or assembly, but I knit on, regardless. Nearly all the pieces were finished, but there was no way on earth it was going to fit me.
Fast forward to today, when I'm not so young anymore, and now I have finally come to terms with the loss and have begun frogging. It's an almost hypnotic process, actually. Until I reached the stranded part in the middle. Serenity gave way to cursing like a sailor at that point. My feelings are mixed. On one hand, I'll never have that cute little sweater I fell in love with, and I'm out a lot of money. On the other hand, I learned how to take apart a sweater to reclaim the yarn, and I now have a respectable amount of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton to play with. The tricky part is going to be finding a project that will work with three colors of yarn.
Was it worth it? Let's see: I learned how important gauge is, I learned how to disassemble a sweater, I learned how some different fibers worked with each other within a project, I learned that it makes a difference whether you use stranding or intarsia, and I still have lots of really nice yarn with which to make a cute top, if not the one I'd originally wanted. Yeah, I think I did all right ;)
