The bolero got frogged.

(Rip it, rip it...) After considering it for a day I did the right thing: I ripped out the complete-but-for-bind-off finishing band around the body opening, opened up the side seams to the armpits (carefully pulling out each stitch so the yarn can be used for continuous restitching) and ripped two and a half inches off the bottoms of the fronts and back. The back's undoing was tedious; the piece is knit from the back edge up, so it was impossible to pull the end of the yarn to unravel it. I threaded a lifeline across the row that would become the new bottom, snipped the last stitch in the row below and used the tip of a darning needle to pick out each stitch, pulling the tail out by hand. Once that row was undone, the bottom chunk was free. It got unraveled and wound back into a ball which can be reused, perhaps as a cuff on a smaller sweater. I also ripped sixty-plus rows of bolero #2, which was about nine inches long and had all of its sleeve width increases complete. Now it's just eight rows tall.

The process was laborious and rewarding, strangely; several productive hours' work was voided, but the sweater better conforms to MFB's design. My 40-inch #5 Addi Turbo broke during the procedure and must be replaced before the bolero can be completed. I'll leave for work a little earlier tomorrow and stop by The Lion & the Lamb on the Upper East Side. (Having bought some yarn and needles there for a knit-for-pay project back in the spring, I know they carry the rarely found 40-inch circs!)

I took a break, drank a lot of club soda and ate a pint of fresh, juicy black figs with the last of some parmesan that was slowly hardening in the fridge. September is asserting itself and summer fruits will disappear soon.

I feel like I made the right choice, but the time seems a painful loss. Steady....