It was sad. She'd worked on it for weeks. The pattern was difficult to read, especially for a beginning knitter with no fear. We all tried to help. Even me. (That was more like the blind leading the blind.)

We'd seen it done before. Karen, frustrated with a quick-knit cardigan sewn together wrong (we blame ourselves; there was a lot of yakking), and having a heck of a time trying to frog it, impulsively and with no regret tossed the whole project into the trash can. We were shocked. (Although I have to admit I was a bit impressed, myself.)

But we all learn by example. Even those of us old enough to use our mom's words on our own kids. Aknita tried to fix her mistake. I tried, too. So did Karen. In the end, after hours of picking and pulling and snipping and bitching, what else could she do? A precedence had been set.