Edging Error

Can you spot the mistake? I didn't see the first one until I'd gone too far past it to even think about frogging back. Then I cursed myself for the next 12". Then I did it again. What is it about knitting?

The mistakes are adding up at an alarming rate - but I'm not going back! It will be interesting to see if they kind of blend in to the finished item. Or if I'll curse it to Wolverhampton and back for evermore. The mistake, of course, is that the blackberry stitch panel is the centre join of the jacket and acts as the front band. So why, in the name of all that's wonderful, am I joining in yarn on that edge?

Also, I couldn't understand the pattern again. You decrease at the waistline. On the back, you knit in 4 extra panels and decrease those panels. Makes sense to me. If you look at the photo, you can see two panels running up the front that decrease. But they ask you to decrease 3 times. 2 panels. Three decreases. That's more decreases than extra panels. But I thought it would look so naff! I couldn't bear to do it. Have done one extra decrease on the two decreasing panels, and cast off 2 extra under arm. Looking at the picture now, I think maybe I should have done as the pattern said and decreased into the moss stitch. It probably would have blended in OK. Well, of course it would. Too late now. No going back. I've marked the decreases, anyway, so that I can match the other front.

Also, I see that I've got the moss stitch twisted here and there. Must be careful to consistently knit into back of knit stitches on right side - this is because I'm doing combination knitting - purling the Lucy Neatby way to keep my tension in order. Also (it goes on and on, doesn't it, this catalogue of errors?) I was absorbed in the TV last night (Six Degrees of Separation - fascinating maths models) and worked one row plain. I may live to regret this, but I didn't frog - I just moved two stitches on the next row.

Andy likes Durrow, so we'll look for some yarn for it.

Talking of yarn, I had a look on Ravelry for patterns that use Rowan's Classic Kid. (Alef, the cardigan I can't make continues to trouble me - as does the pile of frogged yarn and the three expensive buttons.) I also saw a new Alef. The knitter had omitted the triangle on the collar that I had so much trouble with, and it looked OK. I doubt if anyone would ever look at it and say, that collar's shy a triangle! So, I could make a simple shrug from a Kim Hargreaves book and use the buttons elsewhere, or I could knit Alef again, omitting the triangle. I hate to be beaten! There was also a finished Alef with triangle on collar so I emailed the knitter to ask for advice.

Finished the Back - Twice

Have you ever tried to decrease in Blackberry stitch? It's all my own fault, as usual. The pattern warns you to be careful! What you are supposed to do is to make sure that if you cast off three, then you cast on three to keep the stitch count even. If you don't have room to complete the pattern, then you knit reverse stocking stitch. Why didn't I read those instructions BEFORE I merrily knit the whole back? I thought I'd finished, held the back next to the arms to check the length and found they were all wrong. I had to frog back to the point where the Blackberry stitch is taken into the raglan. It's the right size now, but it's still a still a mess. I can see a lumpy bit right down the bottom of the back where I got the dreaded Blackberry stitch wrong, and the blackberries are in different places where they have been taken into the raglan.

I wish, wish, wish that I'd knit all the pieces and then knit the raglans on one needle, but I've never done that before and I funked it rather.

I am so off this garment! I don't like the yarn. I don't like my tatty knitting and I wish I'd never started it - or at least that this was a test and not supposed to be the real one. I get depressed because I have a vision of how beautiful knitting can be, and I get stuck on these horrid scruffy failures. I'd like to make another one in beautiful natural yarn. The second time around I'd know all the things I didn't know when I charged into this one, and it would be nicely knit - in theory. Oh well. I don't want one of these for myself. I wouldn't wear a jacket that only had one button. I'm sure it would flap open and be cold, so it will stay a theory.

It is however, my very first textured garment! I started the front last night. I'm actually impressed with how quickly it's knitting up. When I made my first attempt at Aran knitting, I spent about six weeks making a four inch tension square and decided it was far too slow to try for real.

I have seen a wonderful man's sweater: Durrow by Jodie Green. If DH likes it, then I'll make him one in natural yarn.