It is a question knitters will often find asking themselves and the answer never seems easy. I have once again found myself in this position were I have already invested quite some time in a project, but am unsure whether to continue or not. So to frog or not to frog? That is the question..

Pattern: The Scent of Lavender
Yarn: Araucania Ranco Multy

In general, there doesn’t seem to be anything especially wrong with this project. The yarn is fine, there don’t seem to be any too apparent mistakes in the pattern, the size is working out as well. So why would I consider frogging this? Mainly because it is hard for me to keep myself motivated to finish this project, and there are several reasons for this.

First of all the pattern instructions. I am knitting these from a little Knitting to Go booklet, from which I have finished a pattern before. There are lots of lovely patterns in there that make my sock knitting heart beat a little faster. But as I also came to find with the previous pattern I made (Herringbone from Kiel), I am thoroughly annoyed with the instructions. In the case of the Herringbone socks the heel instructions were very unclear, I frogged the heel twice after ending up with huge holes in the gusset, before eventually knitting a heel from a different pattern. I don’t know if it’s the way the booklet has been translated but again I’m encountering frustrations regarding the directions. I’m sure that partially it’s my own fault, because I do dive into charts immediately without always reading the instructions carefully. But a lot of things in the instructions seem to be implicitly assumed and I generally prefer patterns that explicitly overstate things rather than assuming I just know everything. I’m sure because of the way it is written there are already a few unnecessary errors in my sock, which annoys me to no end.

And then there’s the problem of my yarn choice. I knew very well that this pattern would work best with a solid colour, but I thought I’d get away with the variegated yarn anyway. The colour is so pretty and it somehow feels as if the green would work nice for a leafy lace pattern (I’m such a sucker for leafy lace patterns). But here it is, the lace isn’t popping out as much as it should and in hindsight I should’ve gone for a solid colour.

So what to do? It’s not as if the sock is looking horrendous, I still love the way the pattern looks and the yarn is lovely, plus I’ve already invested quite some time in this (oh dear, sunk cost effect kicking in). But on the other hand, because of the reasons listed above, it is hard to stay motivated and finish this thing and what if I don’t like the end result? For now I don’t have an answer to my own question and I’m avoiding the sock whilst continuing on other projects, running the risk that I’ll forgot about it. What is a knitter to do..