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From super speedy to very.....very.....slow.....
April 20, 2005
This pretty much describes my knitting at the moment! I suppose that's what you get when you go from Big Wool or Chunky Print projects to Calmer. I finally finished the back of Elspeth:
Those are my fingers at the bottom! I say I "finally" finished because there was ripping involved.
Someone emailed me a little while ago asking what I thought of the pattern and chart, and I said it was fine so far, but just after I sent the email it suddenly wasn't so fine! There aren't any mistakes that I've noticed, just that the pattern isn't written in a very user friendly manner. Here are my issues with it:
1. The chart is only for the first 12 rows. There is increasing for the chest and then lots of decreasing for the raglan armholes, and in order to see where I should start the eyelet pattern each time, I had to work out how many sts had changed since the first 12 rows, and count in on the chart. I know that doesn't sound so bad, but it is a bit confusing. Somewhere I went wrong and the pattern didn't line up perfectly. I ripped back to before the mistake, and tried again, counting SUPER carefully, and made the same mistake. I HAVE NO IDEA where it crept in. Can you see it? I can't and I'm not ripping again, as I said I can't see where I went wrong, so it would probably just happen again!
2. No selvedges in the pattern, or any instructions on making decreases or increases. I know I could have put them in, but it's nice when a pattern makes provision for neat seams and the like. I mean, raglan armholes are the neatest of all because you can mattress stitch them together, but I won't be able to! I hope they don't look poo.
3. Not enough stitch counts in the pattern.
I guess that's it. I like it though! I love the design and the yarn I'm using. I will wear it loads when it's done.
I started on the back of Gemma now (I am alternating pieces of Elspeth and Gemma), but have done so little it wasn't worth a photo!
Posted by jen at April 20, 2005 09:40 PM
Comments
Elspeth is looking good! I've only just started it and already I've had to rip out a few rows. I would definately agree that the pattern isn't that user friendly but the wool the lovely and soft. What are you going to wear it with? I was thinking jeans as I'm not really a skirt person...
Posted by: Ali at April 20, 2005 11:32 PM
I find that's not very cool when the pattern isn't user friendly !! I'm ok with Ali : the Calmer is a very soft wool !!!
I can't wait to see Elspeth finished !!!
Posted by: lucile at April 21, 2005 09:06 AM
how annoying!!! but i'm sure it'll look fine in the end and no one will be able to tell!!
Posted by: carolyn at April 21, 2005 01:33 PM
I have been having the same trouble too!! I hadn't gotten very far, but I had to rip the whole damn thing out. I think I'm going to add some selvedges when I start up again. I've been pretty frustrated with this pattern. I keep feeling like I'm doing something wrong.
But, like you said, I do think I'll wear it a lot once it's finished.
Posted by: Ellie at April 21, 2005 03:49 PM
wow--all good to know, as I've just bought the calmer for elspeth and it's next on the knitting list. i will take it slowly and carefully.
can't wait to see it finished!!
Posted by: aubree at April 21, 2005 11:22 PM