Froggy went a Fishing

Here onn Good Old Rocky Top Froggy went a courtin' to bring his Lass a handknit gansey pillow, but halfway there he fell into the Frog Pond and had to be fished out! What did froggy learn?

1. You can't knit the top half of the 1st gansey pillow pattern by simply repeating the written pattern once more while maintaining the continuity of the center section. Following this direction will result in the hearts and triangles landing in strange places. OK. So I reckon that one simply continues each section at the same spacing interval established previously (4 rows between triangles and 6 rows between hearts). That shouldn't be hard, right? I just need to read my knitting as I do when knitting lace and forget about the chart which would be inaccurate. So I put the chart away and knit on into the night. Guess what I learned next?

2. It takes more concentration to accurately knit 3 distinct patterns which repeat at different intervals than I have late at night (esp. after being mind-numbingly sick for several days). About 10 or 12 rows into the upper half I realize I started knitting the triangle 1 row too soon and I added extra rows to the heart so it doesn't match all the other hearts. Things do not look good. I toss the knitting aside and go to sleep.

3. I did have enough sense to wait until this morning before frogging back all those rows and picking up those squirrelly k/p/k stitches. I retrieved the chart from it's notebook and did some cross-eyed counting before starting the upper half of the pillow again. Let's not talk about all the twisty yarn piled up on the bed.

4. Gansey knitting resumes. I knit a few rows, starting the triangle on the correct row and putting the proper number of stitches in the heart. I pause to admire my work when what!!! Oh noooo! I messed up the moss st. border on one edge about 3 rows back. I guess it's back to the frog pond. Poor froggy!

5. BTW, I ditched the stitch markers at the half way point of the pillow. The good news is I managed to successfully keep all the patterns in their proper columns so at least that worked :-)


I think frogs and moss and ponds get along pretty well. Hopefully everything will get better soon.