Friday, March 20, 2009

Mom's Cardigan

I've posted about this one before. I think I finally got it figured out and am going to go with it. There's so many errors in this pattern. I'm listing them on my Ravelry project page and will post them here when I do a finished object post.

First, I calculated, using the numbers on the charts and my row gauge, how much of the lice pattern I should knit before the main Snowflake motifs. There's a lot more lice in my sleeve than in the model's. They never list row gauge, just give a 7 sts/in, which I assumed to be stitch gauge unless they mean 7 sts/inch both row and stitch-wise. I've said it before, but it amazes me that the pattern writer was so helpful in explaining how to figure out your size based on your actual measurements and gauge, but doesn't once mention your row gauge.

According to my calculations, at 48 rows, you'd need to have a gauge of 6 rows/inch to make your sweater come out correctly. I swatched (amazing, I know) and got 6.5 sts/inch and 6.5 rows/inch. Close enough, I can live with 1/2" less of main motif. The 2" less of an 8" motif was just not going to fly, which is why I stopped, put it down for a few months, and swatched before starting over. I also found other mistakes that I didn't find the first time through, and now my sleeve looks a bit nicer. One mistake I just found was in the pattern row count on the Sleeve Pattern. Row 25 is the final row in the main motif. It's the exact same size as the 27 row Body Pattern. Hmm...instead of Row 13, it says Row 12 on the pattern, decreasing the total count to 25 instead of the actual 27. So that messed up my counting a bit. There's also 2 knit in MC rows between motifs I didn't count before. This makes it 52 rows over 8 inches, giving a perfect 6.5 rows/inch. My gauge is now wonderful.

New gauge on the top, as you can see, it's bigger than the old.

I'm going to try to get this and my MIL sweater done by Mother's Day this year. I haven't officially started that cardigan yet, and need to re-swatch and re-figure all the numbers. It's just a raglan cardigan with generous ribbing on the bottom, an applied I-cord edging at the opening, and a ribbed neck of the mock turtle variety. Should be fairly simple, once I get going!

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