The O w l s suffered an incident. Several, actually. I first discovered that my gauge was off. Then, while measuring to see if I could salvage the gauge, I discovered that the waist shaping began and ended too soon. I considered ripping back and adding more length, and then realized that I barely had enough yarn for a short-waisted long-sleeve sweater.

I spent one day frantically messaging Ravelers to see if they had more of the now-discontinued Elsebeth Lavold Calm Wool in blue or purple. There were a few desperate seconds where I considered buying more yarn, but then I went to my stash and stared at the five balls of Calm Wool I have in olive green. You can’t really do much with five balls of wool where the put-up is only 82 yd a skein and every knitter on Ravelry comments that it’s too scratchy for next-to-skin wear. Hats, mittens, and scarves are all out at that point.

But unless the colors and proportions are right, olive and navy/eggplant is a dangerous color combo. It can come off as too playful or worse childish. I had really, really wanted a slim, elegant sweater where the eggplant and navy were mixed into one solid, modern color and looked fabulously refined with everything.

I spent a day vowing the sweater was a bad idea from the start.

Then I got out my olive green calm wool, did a lot of math, and cast on for a top-down O w l s.

And that, dear readers, is why my couch is such a mess.