Arrrrgh!

How frustrating! I am working on a smocked swing top for the Sew? I Knit a-long and can't get started. It all started when I started to prepare the pleater and all the needles fell out. "No problem!", I thought. "How hard can it be to put the needles back in? My friend has helped me before. I have an engineering degree - if little old ladies can do this, so can I, for crying out loud!" (Little did I know how much crying out loud would actually take place).

After a call to my friend, I screwed up my courage for the fourth (!) attempt. I was so confident that I discovered my problem, I didn't take her sage advice to thread two and try, I did all 15. "Take that, pleater!" Here's a picture of the pleater on the floor - I am scared to move it or (you guessed it!) the needles will topple out. Again.



All lined up and ready to go (in better light, too!). So confident am I! "Ha, old ladies!"



And I'm pleatin' along and - would you look at that - no thread in my fabric - no pleating - again! Arrrgh!!



And when you get this far into the fabric, I found out that it is impossible to get the fabric out with out getting the needles out. So here they are - reverse "pleated" to the rear - a veritable needle ejector.



And I am back to square one. Again. Or is this square negative 5? Does anyone know any little old ladies that could straighten me out?