Friday, November 20, 2009

A little bit of back-and-forth

About a week after sending Wood the pdf for Phase VI, I got an e-mail. It wasn't really crucial to include here, but I had fun with it:

"Okay, I've done the decreases, and as usual, your guide was great. I haven't grafted the armpits together yet, but might try it tonight.
It was tricky and kind of confusing to follow Joelle's instructions, but I think I got it right and am ready to move on!"

This is what I wrote back:

"Soooo, what you're saying is "get off your ass, woman, and get me my next tutorial!"

It's cool. I get it. The first bloom of friendship has wilted and the gloves are coming off. I see how this is going to play.

Heheh, I'm just messin' with ya.

I did 90 minutes of yoga tonight, so I'm totally wiped. I'll work on it tomorrow night and send it to you asap - how does that sound? We're almost finished, you realize..."

She wrote back:

"Ha!! Actually the original purpose of the email was to say I didn't understand what Joelle meant by "ending the last round 25 stitches before the last round -- 149 sts: 45 sts for front, 46 for back and 29 for each sleeve" but then as I typed it out I totally got it. So then I was left with an email without a point, so that's why it ended like that.

90 minutes of yoga? I am impressed!"

After which, I got off track talking about yoga (moi? prattle on and on about something? seems so out-of-character!!) and how awesome it is, until she brought us back to the subject at hand and asked:

"I spoke too soon. I do have a question about that last instruction: (1) for some reason, I have an extra stitch in front and back-- 46 sts for front, and 47 for back. But the sleeves are right at 29 each; is this a problem? I have no idea what happened. (2) if I end the round 21 stitches before the end, that is a few sts into the left sleeve (left if you're wearing it, right if you're looking at it). Am I understanding this right?"

My answer:

"Re: 46 and 47 stitches vs. 45 and 46: Totally no big deal. Ignore it and carry on.

Re: end of knitting in the left sleeve: I had the same thing happen to me. Conclusion? Either we made the exact same mistake or (more likely, I say) wonky pattern writing, Joelle! I refuse to consider that I got cocky and misread the pattern. Nope, not my fault. No way.

Now that we have absolved ourselves of guilt there, here is the solution: I totally fudged mine, so you can too. I don't have a camera with me at the moment, so bear with me: You want to find yourself in the middle-ish of your 46-stitch section of stockinette (the front). Knit that 46-stitch section on your last round, but stop when you are 25 stitches from the first right sleeve marker - it'll be about halfway-ish. (note: right arm goes in the right sleeve, just to make sure we are talking about the same sleeve, here). That's where you'll be working the neck placket (see photo), so that's why you stop there, and not at the end of the round. Don't worry if the round is a little offset and you have to knit a partial plain row just to get back to the front section (you probably have your "beginning of round" marker in the wrong spot) - no-one will ever notice, in a trillion years. That's the nice thing about knitting for babies. Their cuteness distracts the viewer from goof-ups in the knitting.

"Oh, isn't that little girl adorable? Wait. Is that decrease slanting the wrong way in her- Oh, she just smiled at me! She smiled! She's the most beautiful baby in the World! Hmm... Now, what was I going to say about her sweater? Oh well, mustn't have been important... She's so pretty."

Hope that answers your questions."

She wrote back the next day:

"Still getting the hang of reading those patterns.
I think I know what I did -- I put my place holder at the wrong sleeve -- I used the right front from my perspective, which is really left. Oops. I knit a partial row to get to the right spot.
I stitched up my armpit holes last night, and the first one is a little rough looking, but the second is better. Like all things with knitting, the first time I didn't really understand what I was doing, and by the second time it made more sense, and as a result, looks much better."

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