Charts

I decided to cast on the Vernal Equinox Surprise Shawl with my Tri'Coterie Sock BFL Silky yarn in the Cinna colorway.  The colorway is this beautiful gradient from royal blue to midnight blue to black.  I fell in love with it when I saw it.  And Cinna is probably my favorite Hunger Games character.

I have gotten to really like charts because they show what stitches are where.  And show  how they correspond to the previous rows. 

Or at least they should.

The Vernal Equinox pattern has charts.  They look like normal charts.  But they aren't.  Starting with row 43, the pattern shifts by a stitch.  However, the chart makes no indication that they are switching.  *blink*  Ummm.  I don't understand why you would chart it that way.  You have to move any stitch markers over one stitch to the right.  And then next row the stitches won't be on top of the stitch where they are in the chart.

Huh? 

I keep coming back to *why* chart it that way?  If it is for space reasons, *say so unfront*.  Luckily there are over a thousand people that have knit this.  So a quick Ravelry search told me that my suspicions about things shifting were correct.  But why not state that?

I feel like it has to be me.  Most people said how easy the charts were to follow.  I don't see that as easy.  Luckily, I found someone who marked out when the rows in the pattern shift.  So I will just highlight them on the pattern so I know.  *shrugs.*

Ah well.  Live and learn.

Lesson for Today

Lesson for today.  Do not cast on a project after you have only had five hours sleep the night before.

I got an amazing skein of DK yarn in the Reavers colorway from Fresh from the Cauldron  The terrific Lizzy4873 on Ravelry stalked for me.  I have been lusting after this colorway since the minute I saw it.  But because it is a gradient and apparently a &@)#* to dye, Jenn doesn't dye it often or that much.  The last update only had five skeins and dear Lizzy was great enough to swap with someone who got two in her cart when she only wanted one.  Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it at all! 

I didn't take a photo, but this one is pretty much identical to the one I got.    The original pic is darker.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/squibstitcher/6887443077/in/photostream/  But I do like the newer one too. 

I spent a good deal of time pouring over patterns.  The strong contenders were Zilver, Escapist & the Colonnade Shawl.

But the Peek-a-Boo Shawl won out.  Part of that is about the sorta distressed, warped feeling of the pattern.  It matches well with the colorway name.

If there was more yardage, Zilver probably would have won out.  But with only 230 yards I really felt like something with more openness would be a good choice.  The Peek-a-Boo Shawl has an 8 row repeat that I can just continue til I run out of yarn.

So I was excited to get it cast on last night.  See above.  Five hours sleep the night before...

So I am merrily knitting along.  I come to row 6.  It says I will have 25 sts after I knit the row.  But I check and double check.  No, really.  I need 25 sts to knit the row & with four stitches increase, the row will actually be 29 sts in the end.  I am so clever.  I know best.  I get to the row 10 which has more pattern work.  I am over by 4 sts.  Really.  I know best.  So I fudge it and figure I will sort it out in the next row.

So this morning I am walking to the train from Eldest Munchkin's school camp.  I pull out the pattern and start looking at it.  Going through I reread row 6.  And I promptly want to whap myself upside the head.

I know I am kinda number dyslexic sometimes.  But somehow I transposed *K1, DW twice, TW twice, DW twice, K1* to *K1, DW, TW, DW, K1* x 2.  *blink* How?!  See sleep.  *shakes head*

The good news is that I was very early in the pattern so I only had to rip back a few rows.  But man... I don't feel very clever!  *laugh*

Ah well.  I am glad I sat down and read over the pattern before I got further along.  That is a plus.

I got more sleep last night.  And this shows the beauty of sleep.  It helps the body & brain function better.  Mind you, because I started knitting this I stayed up later than I should have of course!  *laugh*

I need to write more. Have to post pics of my Afternoon Tea shawl & at least a little Tour de Fleece wrap up.  But my work machine is acting up.  So whenever they can take it, I need to shut down super quick.