Drops 97-8

Arrrrggggghhhhhh

First I have to tell you, I'm a Garnstudio junkie. Love, love, love, that site. Roll all the other freebie pattern places together and to me they don't even come close. They have so many more refreshing designs, they push the envelope (as do most European designs) a little bit. I'm forever getting inspiration from there, as well as a few gotta-do patterns. Which brings us to Drops pattern 97-8

There are a couple of patterns there utilizing this same concept of having a circular piece radiating from the side seam, creating a graceful curve for the front edge. This one does it in a large gauge. 10st/14rows 10x10 cm.

Oooooo how exciting, a quickie cardigan in a construction method, I've been eyeing for quiet sometime now. And now with the Hermitage all squared away, and life back to normal, I'm jonesin' for some knitting, it's been ages since I had needles in hand. Plus the snap in the air (we had frost last night!) a chunky cardigan fits the bill to a tee.

While Joe napped yesterday I swatched. Getting gauge was tough, and there was something else I had to contend with. Not sure how many other people knit the same way I do, but I do have some issues with my purl rows being tighter. In the smaller gauges like for socks or a typical 4 or 6 st/inch gauge it's not all that noticeable and does even out pretty well after blocking. BUT in a gauge of 10st/4inches, it screams at you. Doesn't even look like stockinette!! So being ever resourceful (lol) I started swatching using a #13 on the knit side and #15 on the purl side.......ahhh almost perfect stitch definition. Gauge??? 10.5 st 13.5 row 10x10 cm. Not bad, but not right, and you know this circle thing has to be right.....More swatches, back to using #13 on both rows adding and subtracting multiple carry-along yarns.

TaDa.......Perfect spot on gauge and no discernible knit vs purl wonkiness. I began as Joe left for work.

First part of the right front (circular area) spot on measurements! Wow this was going fast AND easy. Breeze through the funky wording of how to work the armhole shaping and the collar. Four full rows to go and then the shoulder bindoff and the collar tab.................SCREEEECH!!!!!!

WTF!!!!!!

Gauge is still spot on!?! How come this armhole is 30 cm deep?!?! Rip....read...decipher....knit...SCREECH........rip.....read......decipher.......knit....SCREECH!!!!

Go through site looking for errata. Nope, none...sigh Go through each translation to see if there's a typo of some sort in English version.....Nothing that screams at me. There is a phrase in the French translation that has given me a few ideas about how to fix this problem, one of those "at the same time" kind of things, but then the stitch count will be waaaay off. I'm stuck trying to come to grips as to how working a dec every 4th row 9 times when working a 14rows to 10 cm is EVER going to be 19 cm or less.

I'm not in that mode right now. I wanted something mindless but interesting. I'll work on it another day. Or just take the concept and work the thing in garter stitch. Don't feel like revamping a pattern today, maybe another day.

Here's a pic of what I've done so far. It's going to be sleeping for while I think.



Specs:
Pattern: Drops 97-8 Garnstudio
Gauge: 10st 14 rows 10x10 cm
Needles: 13
Fiber: Lana by Tahki color 7004 (royal blue)
with 2 strands of a random cobweb/lace weight variegated lt blue through navy. Had to do something that blue was waaaay too blue for me! Next go around I think I'm going to go with one variegated strand and nice grey solid for the other. It really is a pretty blue, just not me.

I'm still in the chunky mood and I still want a cardigan. I've considered this
and I'm thinking about this vest although I'm not a vest person, I think it too cute for words (the pattern does come with sleeves) And I'm thinking about this one too. Problem with the last two is that I've run out of printer ink and I don't really want to copy this off the computer by hand.....sigh