Liz Can't Knit

Lately I've been having no end of trouble with knitting and crocheting. I have been knitting since I was 5 and crocheting since I was 13, and taught myself to tat at around 16. So you'd expect me to be pretty good at it, wouldn't you? And until recently, that was true.

But suddenly it seems I can't figure out patterns...they come out with too many or too few stitches, or the wrong row(s), or the gauge is off, or they just don't look or fit right.

There could be lots of reasons, such as I'm distracted when I work, or I don't do gauge swatches (well, I *don't*), or I'm still making a size 12 when I haven't been that size in...let's just say it's been a long time.

Plus, when I find that there's a mistake in my project, after I've ripped it out, shouting and scowling, and I re-do it only to find out there's another mistaken, at that point I give up and put the project in the "Corner of Shame."

Has this happened to you? If so, what do you do? Frog it, pretend you didn't see the mistake, try to work around it?

All sensible ideas welcome. Heck, all silly ideas too!