Well, here we are at the end of Week 3 which is now officially Kill An Evil Scum-Sucking Spawn-of-the-Devil Moth Week, after I discovered the little blighters had been chomping freely on the current ball of yarn (see photo).
It’s a crime that might have baffled even Sherlock Holmes on one of his good, coke-free days: the ball was in a sealed ziplock plastic bag, and my Bumper Boys’ CSI Moth Detection Kit revealed no trace of Lepidoptera inside. As it couldn’t have happened after it was removed from the bag (it was in plain sight of witnesses the whole time, all known moths had alibis, etc.) I can only suppose the outrage occurred before it went into the bag, i.e. in the shop in the USA whence it was brought. Anyway, imagine a rather comical look of slack-jawed confusion on my features as I tried to work out how I could possibly have no less than 4 ends of yarn in one ball.
As for the pullover itself, rate of progress is slowing down as I hit my stride, and the novelty wears off. Each row takes about 35 minutes all in, slightly more if it’s a cable row, so I can’t get 2 done in an hour. (Why should that matter? I don’t know but, as Catullus said, fieri sentio et excrucior.) And, just to cap it all, on looking back I find I made a mistake on one of the moss stitch panels about three inches back. It’s right on the edge, and only shows if you’re looking for it, but it’s really annoying to know it’s there.
On the other hand, I read somewhere that it was a tradition among some knitters to make at least one mistake per gansey, because only God is perfect – and since I wouldn’t want to go round one-upping God I allow myself one mistake too. The only trouble is, making it so early doesn’t leave any margin for error later on, and with a dozen balls still to go the tension mounts (that’s tension as in stress, not…).