I hope you didn’t come along in the expectation that you’d be reading about a finished object, because if you did you’re going to be disappointed.

I’ve chosen a title – “My undoing” – which works on two levels. First is the level in the photo: a pile of unravelled yarn and a sleeve without a head. A comprehensive undoing.

On the second level, the more fundamental level, lies my belief I know better than the pattern, which is so often my undoing. When I started to work the sleeve heads of the Heather Sweater, I couldn’t understand how they would marry up with the shaping of the armholes if I followed the instructions, and therefore I went my own “Pam knows best” way and that didn’t work out. That’s fine, as far as it goes, you live and learn and life goes on. What annoyed me was that I knew it wouldn’t work. I knew it wouldn’t work when I started it, when I was halfway through the head of the first sleeve, all the time I was working the second sleeve, and when I was setting the first sleeve in place in the body of the garment. Yet never once did I actually stop what I was doing and go back and revise my silly decision. It is one thing to make an unwise choice, we all do that, we always will, but surely you must reach an age when you start listening to that tiny voice inside you that says “You know what? This isn’t right.”

Quite clearly, I need to go back to school.

As you will realise, my weekend didn’t go exactly as I intended. The Heather Sweater was not finished on Saturday, and instead I unpicked the seams I’d done, unravelled the head of the sleeve and re-knitted it according to the written instructions, although I still can’t see how that will work in practice. I didn’t pick the knitting up at all yesterday, so today my big task is to unpick and re-work the head of the second sleeve. Then, probably tomorrow, I will sew up the garment and hopefully have more joyous news on Wednesday.