Frack

Fans of the updated re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica will recognize the title of this post. Frack is a curse word from a galaxy far far away -- a five letter substitute for a four letter expletive with many letters in common, but one which can't be uttered on basic cable.

This word can also describe the first complete side of my Branching Aran Guernsey. I was under the impression, right up until the last six rows, that I was working on the front. Every other sweater pattern I've made (admittedly, only four -- and one of those was knit in the round), started with the front. But this one starts with the back. I was getting a little alarmed at how long it was growing before the neck and shoulder shaping, but I still didn't clue in until the last minute, due to an annoying process I resort to when I'm confused about a pattern.

Here's what I do. When I get confused, I have to read the pattern aloud to someone (Jeff) in hopes that verbalizing it will make the pattern make sense to me. In this case, I was confused about the decreases on the outside edges and on the neck edges. I had to diagram the directions I would be traveling with the two pieces of working yarn and talk the process through out loud. It doesn't seem to work in isolation -- I have to have someone present. Poor Jeff. He sits there patiently and nods at the right moments, even though he has little idea of what's going on. As usual, it worked -- I figured out how the decreases were supposed to work, and in the process realized that I was talking about the back instead of the front.

It's a little disturbing that I worked on this thing for a week and a half thinking I was on the front of the sweater. In fact, it's frackin' scary.

But on the other hand, I have the largest piece of the sweater done already. Everything else will be smaller. That's pretty frackin' awesome.