So Many Illogicals...

Drink anyone?

There were so many illogicals in this sleeve pattern, I'm not sure I can even remember them all. Aside from the obvious mistake in the increase row -- where the increases called for are not sufficient for the cables to come in row three -- the ends were completely off as well. If I'd followed the pattern as written, I would've ended up with big areas of knit  and purl blocks at each end. Since this is a basic cable/rib pattern which calls for incorporating the cables and ribs as the increases are worked, it was obvious things needed to be fixed.

There were also some other inconsistences in the pattern itself.

It was obvious that not all sleeve sizes were knitted up into prototypes and these instructions are best-guesses. This shocked me because, typically, Rowan patterns -- with the exception of the sometimes "creative" way in which things are worded -- are written very well. Also, this pattern was from The Rowan Treasury of Knits. This means, it lived it's life as a pattern in Rowan Mag 27, and was then folded into this collection. I would assume that if they missed something the first time around with the magazine pattern, they'd catch it while going through the proofing process for the book.

The only thing I can figure, is that it wasn't a popular pattern and that not many people (if any) knitted this up in my size. I say this, because, after Googling and checking the Rowan site itself, I wasn't able to find any published errata.

That being said, it was clear that I would need to chart out the pattern to figure out where the errors were and then re-chart with corrections -- which is what I did. I then charted out the increases as they occur and figured in the ribs and cables as the stitches increase along the ends.

I have to say, I am now a HUGE fan of the charting. I LOVE THE CHARTING. It appeals to all of my craziness with the details and the tiny squares and the grid and the symbols -- oh, how I ADORE the symbols -- and the way I can only really understand things if they are presented visually.

So, while it was irritating in principle to have to chart this all out, in actuality, it was a LOT of fun.

I am now hunting for ways to chart out all pattern instructions (not just stitch patterns) so as not to have to fuss with cumbersome row-by-row directions.

I should mention that since I was re-charting things, I decided to make the cables flow out in opposite directions from the center. I didn't like that they all went in the same direction on the sleeves, while on the pocket, they pointed in opposite directions.

See? See how I get?

Here is a detail of the cables followed by a progress shot:

Now, onto recalculating the Subway Sweater pattern...