Thursday, December 28, 2006

here we go again...

I haven't gotten as much knitting done during this winter break as I hoped to. I forgot how busy the holidays actually are. I do have the body and one sleeve finished on my Phildar cabled yoke pullover. I just have to finish the raglan shaping on the top of the sleeve---but I'm not sure what they're asking me to do. There could be a very simple explanation (something along the lines of: I Don't Know What I'm Doing, perhaps) and maybe I just haven't tried hard enough to decipher them, but the directions read:

On right edge, leave 9 sts 5 times and 8 sts once on a holder.
At the same time, continue dec: 2 sts from left edge of foll alt rows, sgl dec 4 times.

I get the decreasing instructions, but how do I leave 9 stitches on a holder 5 times? Looking ahead at the directions for the yoke, it looks like you just pick up all the sleeve stitches at the same time. Is this just Phildar's poorly translated way of telling me to put 53 stitches on a holder? But following these instructions is supposed to leave me with a diagonal edge on the top of the sleeve. Does any of this make any sense to anyone??

EDIT: I think I figured it out! I purl to the last 9 stitches, put them on a holder, knit back across the row, decreasing 1 stitch at the edge, then purl back to the last 9 stitches, add them to the stitch holder, knit back to the edge...and so on, making the rows shorter as you go.

(...doesn't seem that difficult now.)

In better knitting news, I received Stitchionary I and II for Christmas. I'm probably the last knitter on earth to get my hands on these books, but I'm already thinking of the amount of damage I can do with these babies!

And these came in the mail the other day...about two days after Christmas, unfortunately. I'm still happy to have them. I remember when my mother gave some personalized labels to my grandmother, when I was much younger. I always thought it was so cool that the sweaters she knit had her own tags in them. It's such a nice touch. I got these from Charm Woven Labels, which I found via Carrie's blog.

6 Comments:

Blogger Karin said...

Wow, I am really at a loss for what that pattern is asking you to do as well!! I am sorry I can't help.

I got the Stitchionary books for Christmas too! They are really neat aren't they?

Cute labels. I might have to order some for myself.

12:41 PM  
Blogger spajonas said...

ok, after thinking about it, i think that they mean for both sides of your sleeve to be sloped which is why you are decreasing on the left side and each row you are leaving 9 stitches on a holder (8 stitches on the last row). what i don't understand is why they want those stitches on a holder? are you supposed to leave them live so that later you graft them? not sure.

1:00 PM  
Blogger krazybarrister said...

see, you know exactly what you're doing, even though you don't know it!

12:55 AM  
Blogger Stacey said...

glad you figured it out! what cryptic directions.....

9:49 AM  
Blogger Sally said...

No one ever gets enough knitting done during the holidays. I'm kind of looking forward to getting back to work so I can relax. :o)

Your dad's sweater looks fantastic, better than anything you could have bought for him ready-made.

I got a boatload of books for Xmas too. If only I had enough yarn to complete all of the projects in them that I like...

12:53 PM  
Blogger carrie said...

i'm sorry, but those instructions truly made my head hurt. perhaps i'll look at them during the light of day.

don't you LOVE those labels? i swear, people are more impressed with the labels than the finished objects.

5:23 PM  

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