Yep, this is the back of Chip's sweater in it's new life as a hank of Donegal Tweed. I had completed 138 rows of the back of Rhapsody in Tweed and I succumbed to the inevitable. It was knit too tight. I knew it all along, and was trying to deny it. But, when I measured my fabric at 138 rows I was five inches shy in the length I needed. I knew that it wasn't just a hunch that I was way off on my gauge. And yes, I did do a gauge swatch before I started, but that whole "while slightly streched" thing threw me off. I guess I just stretched it too much. I'm going to start again on needles two sizes larger and it should be much better. He may be in this thing by this time next year!
In the meantime, I'm working on this:
Some of you may recognize my Bonkers merino (snagged at The Studio sale a couple weeks ago). The color is Flamingo Fest. It is scrumptious. So so soft and cushy. It's "almost" as soft as cashmere, and I love it. It's knitting up in a delightfully random "pattern" until you get to the decreasing for the raglan at the top. Behold the evil green eye and pink armpits:
I don't care, I still love it.
Now, I did run across what I believe is an error in the pattern. I'm making a medium and cast on 130 stitches for the back. You decrease 8 stitches in each 6 row repeat of the decreasing pattern. You're supposed to end up with 48 stitches for the medium before you cast off. There's just no way to arrive at that number decreasing 8 stitches at a time. So, I stopped at 50 and cast off instead. I checked the errata at XRX for The Purl Stitch and found no mention of this particular problem. I've posted at Knitter's Review, Knitty, Page by Page, and XRX, to see if anyone else noticed this. I've also done some checking around the blogs and nobody that has done this sweater mentioned it either. Did they all do the size small? It's the only one in the pattern where the stitch count is correct.
I made a medium, too, and didn't have a problem with the stitch count on the body. There is an error in the stitch count for the decreases on the sleeves. I'll try to take a look at the pattern over the weekend to see if I can figure out how to explain it better.
Posted by: Susan | January 26, 2005 at 09:13 AM