Week Three (a bit late)

Warning: Very Long Post Ahead

This is week three's progress report and I have to say a break can be the best thing for both of you sometimes. Mostly because I messed up. I worked the right front wrong and accidentally bound off two more stitches than I was supposed to (no worries, the following instructions are correct, I just had a blonde moment further on down the line). I thought, "Oh heck, two stitches aren't that big of a deal and I hate ripping back so, onward!" Yeah.

I replicated my mistake on purpose for the left front. All was fine until I went to sew the shoulder seams. (insert swearing here) To quasi-fix it, since I was in no way going to rip back 19" of knitting, I had to undo my cast-offs and re-do them in a manageable way to get the cables to line up. I think it kinda works but, it probably doesn't matter because my shoulder seams look like junk anyway. Have I mentioned yet how bad I am at seaming? It doesn't like me much either.

Next I went to pick up the stitches for the hood and again, not my strong suit. I'm lousy at picking up stitches. I counted as I picked them up but somehow I counted three too many at the end. Came back three days later and recounted to discover it was correct. Maybe the knitting fairies came and visited while I was out of town last weekend. Or maybe I should stop knitting when it's past 10:30 pm. Now we’re sailing along again. *phew*

Now, by request, how to split the single piece of knitting at the armholes to work the shaping. Once you have knit the 14 inches or so solid and are ready to work the armhole shaping it's time to remember where the front and back pieces are. Take a minute and place stitch markers where your seams would have been. To find these again take the number of stitches you would have cast on for the right front (if you were working it separately) minus one. So if you were supposed to cast on 38 in the instructions count 37 stitches in and that is where you will be splitting your work. You can do the same thing for the left front starting from the other end. To double check yourself count the back piece and it should be two stitches shy of how many the instructions said to cast on. Now place the work on three separate needles or cords.

To start working the armholes the only tricky part is the first row (for the fronts) or two (for the back). Let’s start with the right front. With the first (WS) row it says to bind off (X) number of stitches. You are already short one stitch on the seam side so instead of binding off (X) number of stitches bind off (X-1). Work the rest of the pattern as written. For the left front, the first (RS) row of the armhole shaping, do the same thing.

The back piece is worked similarly. Under “Armholes” it says to bind off (X) number of stitches at the beginning of the next two rows. Bind off (X-1) stitches at the beginning of the next two rows and work the rest according to the pattern. You should be set.

Sorry this was soooooo long. Have a great week!