Persistent Knitter

So I figured out what happened. My error was twofold. First, I counted the # of stitches in the back portion of the sweater wrong. I had added 10 stitches in my head, but really there are only 137. Second, the pattern is written less than clearly in this section. I was fine as long as I had the chart to follow along. I could see where the decreases were supposed to happen, how many stitches, etc. But once I’m off the chart, all hell broke loose!

I stated before I couldn’t figure out why they put the "twice" word before the stitch count. I’m still not sure why they used that word as I can’t figure out which portion of the damn pattern it’s supposed to apply to. Here’s an example of how I’m supposed to decrease in the block rib portion:

… work 15 Rows of Block Rib and, AT THE SAME TIME, cont dec 1 st at the beg and end of every other Row twice (225 sts).

Written as exactly shown in the pattern except I spelled out Row instead of just putting in R. To interpret this poorly worded sentence, you have to realize that they have now split the sweater at the front neck opening and the beginning of the row is the right side of the neck (as you are wearing it), and realize that you should be working back and forth. No problem. So beg and end mean each side of the neckline (why don’t they just say that?)

So you decrease one stitch away from each side of the neckline, but here’s the kicker - how often do you do it?? Well, to get to the stitch count they’ve given (225) you need to get rid of four stitches total because according to the last row in the chart you have 229 stitches on the needles at this point. Going with the easy math that means doing two decrease rows over the 15 block rib rows. Easy! Not with how they describe it. If you assume that "twice" applies to the noun preceding it (every other Row), then it seems that you’d be decreasing every 4 rows?? That interpretation doesn’t work either, cuz you could decrease THREE times that way within the 15 block rib rows, and you’d be two stitches short of the count you need.

eesh.

I’m fully in favor of fully charted patterns at this point. Of course then everyone would see how easy it really is to knit a sweater and they wouldn’t be intimidated by patterns at all, and gee - wouldn’t that be a crime?

So the pattern does the "twice" thing again when describing the decreases for the back neckline, but since I know now I need 44 stitches for each shoulder I can just figure out how many decreases I need in that section of the pattern.

Whew!

Hopefully pictures tonite. I’ve made good progress on both Hardangervidda and Katie’s sock.