Swallowed but not Digested

Thank goodness for my local yarn shop. They bailed me out yet again.

I was pushing along with the Swallowtail Shawl, onto the Lily of the Valley Border I. I'd carefully consulted the knitalong that I'm participating in, read the posts about the fearsome nupps (more on that in a moment), and posted a question that received three helpful suggestions. I counted carefully, tried my hardest to pay attention, and then counted again.

Still, something amiss. But I persevered. I came up with a handy solution to the fact that I was short a few stitches. Well, that my knitting was. I simply added in a stitch at the missing spots, taking careful note of the variation so that I could repeat it if needed.

More knitting. More strange deviations from the number of stitches specified in the pattern to occur between nupps (more on those later). Finally, the personal admission that Something isn't Working. I called my yarn shop and asked if there was someone in who could give me a half-hour private lesson, to help me determine what I was doing wrong. One of the teachers urged me, instead, to just come in. Someone, she assured me, and probably the expert on lace, could take a look.

So in I went, also taking More than Circular along to show off proudly. Found the lace expert available. Sat down with her while she puzzled over the problem.

And the mistake?

I missed the far right hand margin of the page when I made my copy. You know, the part where it says "k1, yo, k1, yo, k1"? My version said "k1, yo, k1". . .so I was making 3 stitches for the nupp (more on that later) instead of 5. Thus, throwing the next row and all else into disarray.
Nothing intellectual or creative gone wrong. Just a bad copy!

Now I'm a-ripping back, my least favorite part of knitting. And even more painful on the last day off before going back to work. But the lovely part was hanging out at the knitting store, sitting around the table gabbing with other knitters, drinking a latte (at one point, I had to have sustenance or could not go on with the ripping), and strolling about in quest of a pretty but not too demanding project for me. At the end of the afternoon, the knitter sitting next to me showed me the Rowan pattern she was working on. Perfect! The final choice: Nancy from the Wool Cotton pamphlet, a vintage-style cardigan with a seed-stitch collar and a ribbed detail on the sleeves. I bought some rosy-pink-peach colored wool-bamboo from Classic Elite, and have a date to go back next Sunday to see the version of Nancy that my knitting acquaintance made from Anny Blatt.


And those so-called Nupps? Seems that they are known as nubs by many knitters. Right. Much more polite to speak of in mixed company, as well.