It seems I owe Nicky Epstein an apology.

In the greatest tradition of these things, it’s not her, it’s me.

I did say that I was mathematically challenged, when I was complaining about this cardigan pattern being all wrong. As it turns out, I am also challenged in the department of being able to read a knitting pattern. Oops.

What I was trying to do was:
k12 sl1 k1 psso k1 k2tog, k12 sl1 k1 psso k1 k2tog, k12 sl1 k1 psso k1 k2tog…

and what I should I have been doing was this:

k12 sl1 k1 psso k1 k2tog k12, k12 sl1 k1 psso k1 k2tog k12, k12 sl1 k1 psso k1 k2tog k12…

Spot the extra “k12” in the second line, which makes all the difference.

Anyway, I have now finished the back, and aside from my own stupidity, it was extremely easy to knit.

The waist shaping at the back is achieved entirely by the cables pulling the knitting in – there’s no shaping in the back at all, apart from the armholes.

The last photo is probably the most accurate in terms of the colour. The wool is Rowanspun Chunky, which I bought in the sale at Cucumberpatch

The only change I’ve made so far is that I’m knitting it on 7.5mm needles instead of 8mm. The smallest size given in the pattern was 38″ and I wanted mine to be a little tighter than that, so hopefully the slightly smaller gauge will make just enough difference.

(You watch the damn thing turn out too small now!)

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One down, four to go…

Recently I have been mostly making itty bitty things for my sister’s wedding, which is rapidly approaching. I say “itty bitty” in the sense that these things are not enormous great bridesmaids’ dresses, but I swear it would have been quicker to make a bunch of dresses than these cravats!

They need such a lot of hand-sewing that they take a really long time to put together. I’m really pleased with the way this first one looks though – now I just need to add the knots to the remaining four. (And make five matching pocket hankies. And get them back to my sister.)

I’ve also been helping out with some jewellery and hair accessories. The little green chiffon flowers were originally brooches. Two of them are now on snappy hair clips (as modelled!), and one is on an elastic bobble.

The diamante bracelet just needed a new clasp, and the little sparkly petal bracelet had to be shortened to make it fit a four-year-old.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be making the alterations to my bridesmaid’s dress (it’s this one, but I’ll be adding spaghetti straps), and then we’ll be good to go!

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Nicky Epstein’s Cardigan with Cabled Points

Has anybody ever successfully knit Nicky Epstein’s Cardigan with Cabled Points?

The pattern is in a supplement with this month’s Knitting magazine (UK). I find it suspicious that I’ve just trawled through fifty-four pages of Google images and the whole of Flickr, and I can’t find a single photograph of the finished garment. (I’d try Ravelry, but I’m still 31,783rd in the queue to join!)

I’m asking because I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon unravelling the damn thing. I am amazed at how utterly wrong a pattern can be, and still make it through to publication!

I was making the smallest size, for which the instructions are:

Cast on 116.
Row 1: K12, skp, k1, k2tog, k12 – rep to end.

Except that first row only adds up to 114 stitches.

I decided to persevere, pulling the two extra stitches off the needle, carefully unpicking the slip knot and unravelling them, in order not to have to unravel the entire thing straight away.

Row 2: p. Not much that can go wrong there.

Row 3: k11, skp, k1, k2tog, k11 – rep to end.

Uh-oh. These decreases don’t line up neatly with the ones below. (Which is what we want if we’re making points.) I persevere, and reach the end of my last k11 with a mere seven stitches left over.

This is not going well.

I break out the calculator.

Anyone who knows me will be aware that my maths skills are pretty much non-existent, so there may have been a certain amount of swearing involved at this point. I carefully work out the new repeats, unravel the whole thing, and start again with 114 stitches. Unfortunately my carefully worked out maths is completely wrong, and I have to unravel the first three rows and start again for the third time.

Third time lucky – I put in lots and lots of stitch markers where I want the decreases for the points to be. It’s like knitting a porcupine, but at least I now have clues as to what I’m supposed to be doing. I decrease away happily.

Unfortunately, by row 9 I already have fewer stitches than I’m supposed to have at the end of row 13, and my points aren’t coming out the right shape (according to the picture) at all. I’ve checked the internet for corrections, and all I can find is something relating to the numbering of rows on the sleeves. Nothing at all which mentions the maths for the points is all wrong.

It’s at this point that I give up, unravel the entire thing again, and start knitting a nice simple cardigan from Simply Knitting March 2007. I’m adding some shaping to the back to make it a bit less like a giant rectangle with two cables down the front, but so far it’s knitting up beautifully and I can’t fault the pattern at all.

I’d be quite interested to know whether anybody at Knitting actually had to knit the cardigan that’s shown in the picture, or whether it was a stock photo from one of Nicky Epstein’s books. Either way, I’d be interested to know how a pattern which is so completely wrong can make it through to publication without anybody apparently having knitted it! The mistakes are obvious by the second row, so you’d be aware of the problem straight away.

If anybody does actually have a list of errata for this pattern, I’d really like to see it. I really want to knit it, as it’s a beautiful cardigan, but I’m damned if I can figure out how to fix the pattern by myself!

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