The Trials of My Errors

By Jove, I think I've finally caught onto this eyelet dealie. Today, I realized the error of my ways, corrected it, and my pattern FINALLY began to emerge correctly, with the correct number of stitches per round every row.

I'll pause until the cacaphony of cheers and applause dies down. ;-)

Colleen posted a comment to my previous post about the eyelet issue regarding the YFs and she was correct about the YFs actually being YOs (and I still don't understand why patterns aren't just written YO—if that's what they mean, then write it, thank you). I was pretty sure that's what they were (YOs). I was also pretty sure that's what I was doing.

And I was. At least the first YF was a proper YO. To review, it's a 7-stitch repeat consisting of several rows of K5 P2 with a pattern row in between, with the pattern row being:

*K2tog, yf, K1, yf, sl 1, K1, psso, P2*

So translated, it's actually:

*K2tog, YO, K1, YO, SL 1, K1, PSSO, P2*

What I did was lose the second YO before the SL 1. It just disappeared. Why? Because I interpreted YF literally, as in:

"bring the yarn forward; then slip the stitch"

which means just put the yarn in the front, leave it hang, and slip the stitch without anything between the previous K1 and the slipped stitch, instead of what I should have been doing, which is:

"do a yarn over and wrap that sucker around the needle, THEN bring the yarn forward, slip the stitch, and carry on"

Eeesh.

Or, I suppose I could opt to carry the yarn in back before slipping, but with that and the question of whether I'm supposed to slip as if to purl (standard, right?) or slip as if to knit... too many rules! TOO MANY! Since it wasn't specified, and my apologies to Leslie Taylor if I've diverged from your original intentions with this pattern, I decided to carry the yarn in front, slip as if to knit, and make sure that second YO is locked in there. At this point, I may well be doing the Knitty Banter Variation on a Theme, but that's OK as long as the darned things actually make it to sock status.

What a way to learn an openwork technique. My poor yarn. Good thing these socks are for me. If that one little section wigs out from the seventeen re-froggings, it'll only be my ankles that suffer. Sorry. I know I should have wet the yarn and let it return to its normal state before knitting again, but I just can't be quite that AR during Xmas Season. I already spent far too much time worrying away at a project for me when I really should be knitting Xmas stuff!!!!!

So be it.

Grey's Anatomy is a repeat tonight. Pooh. Now what am I gonna rot my brain with tonight until ER comes on?

posted by Jeanne @ 8:54 PM