Startitis, of a kind

I don't usually get the typical knitting startitis. Certainly, I compulsively queue projects, most of which I will never make: I need to get better at using the "favourites" feature in ravelry instead of just queuing everything I like the look of whether I'll make it or not. In any case, while I have "queue-itis" (eugh at vowels), I don't generally find myself compulsively casting on for lots of projects in quick succession. This is because I'm so anal about yarn purchasing these days that I spend ages and ages deliberating about what yarn to buy, or whether or not to even buy yarn at all... So far I'm keeping my yarn purchasing under control, which I'm happy about.

Anyway. A different sort of starting problem plagues me. It seems like every project I start, no matter how simple, starts with a stupid mistake. For example, I nearly always use long-tail cast-on, and even though I know I should be more careful with leaving a long-enough tail, I nearly always have to restart my cast-on because I've run out of yarn. Sometimes more than once. But I'm too excited to be careful and methodical! It's stupid.

When I make it past the cast-on, there's usually something else that goes wrong almost immediately. With Odessa, I mobiused the damn thing. Then I realized I hadn't cast on enough stitches. With Tempting II, I've just started, and it turns out I screwed up the 1X1 rib in the first row. Rather than rip it all out, or just ignore it and let it work itself out (both of which I sometimes do), I decided to go about manually unknitting each stitch and re-positioning it as knit or purl, then knitting or purling the stitch again to be caught up to the second row.

Once I'd realized that it was only about 20 stitches into the round that I'd purled twice, thereby throwing off the entire rest of the row, I didn't think to only undo and fix those twenty stitchs to realign the rib. No, it was only about halfway through the row of fixing that I realized that would have been smarter and faster. Blah.

As I stands, I still haven't finished the fixing row. The knitting is sitting in my living room sulking. At this rate it would have been faster to rip it all out, but if I do that I'm sure to screw up the cast-on. Repeat cycle.

Sigh. I think I sabotage myself and my knitting a little sometimes. I'll get there eventually.