Learned my lesson the hard way!

17 years ago

Well, Saturday night I finally got the seams sewn on a sweater I knitted for my niece. This pattern has been one frustration and roadblock after another. The first problem was the sleeves. I followed the directions to the letter, and the first sleeve was 20" long (the supposed finished length) and I still had many rows to go. Plus a 20" sleeve is about 4" too long! So, I ripped out the whole first sleeve, left out the "work even" part and started increasing right away.

I should have known to stop right then, but I kept going. The pattern had several more errors, and quite a few vague instructions. Did I learn after the 2nd time I had to rip out to fix something? Nooooo....I kept knitting.

This pattern has a beautiful intricate cable on the sleeves, and pretty cables in the ribbing. In the photo it's really pretty.

So, as I said, Sat. night I got the seams sewn and tried it on. My niece is about the same size as me. The sleeves are at least 4" too long, and the body of the sweater is big enough to go around both of us. With the way the shoulder shaping worked up, you could put football pads inside this sweater!

I am so discouraged and frustrated! Yesterday I found a differnt pattern on Patons website, and bought more yarn to make a second sweater. The first one will get finished eventually and given to Goodwill or someplace.

The first pattern was from Knitty.com. I guess I've learned my lesson about patterns from blogs and the like. I'm sticking with published patterns from now on!

Donna

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Comments (5)

socks
17 years ago
I hear you! I'm so sorry for all the frustration. Please don't break your needles! What a waste of time and yarn. Any published patterns can have errors though.

Have you ever read anything by knitter Stephanie McPhee? She is so funny and makes a joke about knitters trying to fix problems by blocking the finished item. So maybe your sweater will block out ok. Just kidding, of course.
msmeow
Original Author
17 years ago
Socks, I'm not going to throw away my needles just yet! LOL Been knitting too long for that.

I haven't read anything by Stephanie McPhee. I'll have to check her out. There is a lady known as the Singing Quilter who has funny songs about the things quilters do, too...including "You can quilt that out, right?"
:)
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sheilajoyce_gw
17 years ago
I agree, Donna. I have tried a few free internet patterns, and they seem to have a design problem as a rule. The exception is the Saartje's booties, which knit up quickly and are darling. I had several inches of an intricate fisherman's knit sweater back knitted, but I put it away and started a few other projects I finished first. I went to finish it, and I just hated the way the ribbed bottom wiggled and warped. I checked the various pictures others had made of the same pattern, and they were all warped too. So I just frogged it and will knit another cabled sweater, and this time from a published pattern. I seem to like the Leisure Arts pattern books and have no trouble with their patterns.
socks
17 years ago
That's definitely the risk of just snagging stuff off the internet. Lion Brand may be pretty safe, though. I think there is a section of pattern corrections at LB if I'm remembering right.

s
sheilajoyce_gw
17 years ago
I agree, Socks, the yarn company patterns on the internet are good. I have made a few of them.