More Miette progress

At the beginning of the holidays I told you that I was working on my first sleeve of my Miette cardigan, so I am sure you are wondering why I haven’t finished yet. With nothing to do for weeks, surely I must have finished by now… well I’m sure I would have done if it weren’t for an inability to count/concentrate. As a teacher I shouldn’t really be admitting this (since I have had to tell cheeky kids in my class that I do actually know how to count), but there were extenuating circumstances.

I was knitting the sleeve in the round on the tube and using a row-counter app on my phone. Oh, is that my stop? Quick, must make sure I have got all 4 double pointed needles, don’t drop yarn on tube floor, put touch-screen phone in bag and accidentally press row counter, squash between commuters, change tube lines, back to knitting… now where was I?

Then I realised that I had picked up a couple of extra stitches when I started the sleeve, which made the join less gape-y. I’ve bookmarked today’s agenda’s Miette knit-along for tips about modifying the pattern but I had totally lost track of which row I was on, so there was nothing else to do but frog* the sleeve! eek! I worked out how many stitches I had and how many I needed to get to and worked out a new pattern of decreases, making sure I made copious notes this time and using my new row counter.

I also used the magic loop technique of knitting in the round, which made it easier to keep track of the beginning of the row. Now the sleeves are done I need to go and buy some buttons so I know how big to make the button holes – should I go for subtle or contrasting buttons?

Apologies for washed out pictures, it has been gloomy grey skies here all day – the real colour is a bit more turquoise.

*According to The Knitting Pocket Bible “the term ‘frog’ comes from the wish to pull or ‘rip’ vigorously at the knitting, so giving rise to the phrase ‘rip it, rip it!’ – which sounds like a frog’s croaking call.”