Lessons I've Learned From Moss & Ribs Cardi

• How to read the chart. Ok, now I am a fairly intelligent person and I do know how to read charts. I've knitted lots of things from charts. And I could not figure this one out. Period. So, I emailed the designer. She answered me quickly and didn't make me feel stupid! Cool beans!
• When you do a swatch (and I know we all makes swatches) be sure you make notes as to the size before blocking and what needles you used. Don't do what I did...I made my swatch a month or more before I was ready to start the sweater. When I went back to it, I couldn't remember what needles I had used. Not good.
• When you begin knitting a pattern make a few notes on the pattern itself so that if you get distracted by some other shiny project and have to steal the needles...you can come to your notes to remind you what size needles you were using. "Oh I'll remember" did not work for me!
• When knitting a cardigan with a button band that is added on by picking up and knitting it's not a good idea to slip the first stitch on the edge where the button band will be added.

See how much I've learned so far? And right now I have zero, zip, nada to show for it.

I did my swatch for MRC back in March. No notes. I'll remember what size needles I used. Uhhh huh. Well, of course by April when I started the cardi I could not remember what size needles I had used on the swatch. So, in keeping with my pattern of behavior I made no notes as to needles used on the cardi. In my defense, I normally finish a project within a quick enough time frame that I don't have to rely on my memory because the needles are with the project. In this case, that didn't happen because of the unfortunate incident with the unmatching 2nd ball of yarn. I finished the back and did about half of the front before deciding that the 2nd ball was decidedly lighter shade than the other 2.

I bound off the half finished front and blocked it figuring I might as well get something good from it. Sure enough it is not going to be large enough. So, I put it all aside (once again I did not make any notes as to what size it was before I blocked it)and out of my mind until last week when I decided that I love this yarn and this pattern so much and cannot quit thinking about it. So, it must be knit!

This is when things really went to hell.

So, I contacted the yarn company and she is going to try to match the yarn I have and send me two more skeins. Yippee!

I am so excited and thrilled. I dug out the pattern and the parts that I had knitted. My memory tells me that I used the size needles listed in the pattern. My other memory tells me that was 5's and 6's. Well, one of you is wrong because the pattern calls for 3's and 4's and for some unknown reason I have removed the needles from the completed cardigan back and left it dangling on the cable. Now, I do seem to remember removing those needles for another project but I don't remember having a project since April that used size 4 needles. Oh dear. This is getting so confusing. Why would I have removed the needles if I didn't need them for another project? (Edited to add: I finally remembered why I removed the needles from the back. It was to start the front you moron!) Well, sometimes I do get into an organizing frenzy.

Ok, thing I know-the cardi as I knitted it thus far will be too small. My memory says I used the needle size called for in the pattern. So, I bravely cast on using 4's and 5's and knitted merrily along.

I actually had to resort to looking at pics I had taken in an effort to figure out what needles I had used. If you look at this picture really closely you can see some white plastic showing through the stitches. This tells me that I used the Boye set. And the only reason I would've used it is that the Harmonys don't come in size 3. Ahh Hah!

My next screw up: I read somewhere that it's a good idea to always slip the first stitch and knit the last stitch and this helps those pesky loose edges. Great! I'm doing that and it looks great. Then I read ahead in the pattern and see where the front band will be picked up and knitted 2 stitches for every 3 rows. Now, I do know enough to realize that by slipping the first stitch I only have one "chain" along the edge for every two stitches. This is not good. I check with my knitting gurus who inform me that this was a bad idea.

So, guess what I did today? Frogged it all. The whole sheebang. And I am not going to start again until I get the new yarn in hand and verify that it matches the 2 that I have.

But it will be knit.