Warriston has been going like a bomb. I was so pleased when I reached the end of the raglan decreases last night. I set to counting the stitches as I am never quite sure how to interpret the instructions and when Repeat 15 times means actually do 16 in total… designers appear to differ in their expression of instructions and whichever way I fall appears to be wrong, so counting is the only way to go. That or do the initial maths, which is so not like me.
My count was off. WAY off. I had far too many stitches. I looked at the pattern and oh, my…
I have been working at my desk, knitting with the aid of a desk lamp and in front of the “telly”. I have been engrossed in a couple of dramas, catching up on the BBC’s iPlayer while I knit. Any one of these factors may explain why, when I read my crumpled print of the pattern, taken from a knitting project bag that has travelled halfway around Scotland this year, I misread the instructions.
I could blame my age, my eyes or the fact that I need new glasses. Maybe.
Perhaps, if I were an adequately numerate person, I would have recognised immediately that summat was up. Who knows. I’m not and never will be fluid with numbers.
Anyway, having read the instructions I got stuck in to it and knitted away for two days without referencing the pattern again. I didn’t need to. It was straightforward. What could go wrong after all. I simply marked up my tally sheet and kept on going.
If only I had taken another look
Alas, having misread initially, I carried on doing what I was doing for longer than I should have. I had done 8 extra paired decrease rounds, where I should have been doing triples and my work at this stage not only had 7 decrease rows less than it should have in total but was by now 8 rows short in its length.
There was only one thing to do and I did it. I ripped it back, after attaching a paper clip to the 8th decrease round. I just took the circular needle out and yanked. Luckily the yarn has plenty of “catch” and is nicely sticky. To pick up the stitches I changed a needle point from a Symfonie to a Nova, in a smaller size. Picking up from the purl side meant that the stitches were readily reseated correctly. Sometimes I am very happy that I discovered KnitPro interchangeables!
Job done, hurrah, and now I have to set off again, doing the thing correctly – which I shall do after lunch today.
On the topic of lunch – I have misplaced my carefully-collated cabbage recipe collection so have fallen back on soup. I am serving up Cullen Skink today, simple, beautiful, hearty – and very, very tasty. Flatbreads alongside, done on the hob, for those of us who have lost the will to fast. No names, no pack drill.
Be First to Comment