Posting another picture of the ol' Chaos Theory socks, because this is the only way I can look at them right now. Yes, I have somehow managed to LOSE these astoundingly loud socks. I'm sure they will eventually turn up somewhere, although I am at a loss to explain how they vanished in the first place.
Still haven't finished knitting my Loch Ness Monster. I'm having real frustrations with how the flipper instructions are written. It says to pick up 12 stitches using the photo as a guide, and in the photo the stitches are picked up on the right side (as opposed to left, not as opposed to wrong). So that's what I did. Knit the flipper--and it was backwards. Apparently the instructions are for the *left* flipper. Sigh. Frogged it. There are no instructions for knitting it to face the other way; the instructions say to knit the second flipper "analogously" (I'll save you the trip to the dictionary; it means "in a similar way"). Had to recalculate the increases & decreases and placement of same to get it to face the right way. Only took three tries.
Then I did the left flipper. Even though I followed the instructions exactly, I got about halfway through & realized it didn't look right. Oh--the decreases slant in the wrong direction. Sigh. Frogged and re-knit. Still didn't look right. Oh--the increases slant in the wrong direction, too. Double sigh. Frogged and re-knit.
Today I knit the first hind flipper. Going on the assumption that the instructions were for the left flipper, I made the same adjustments I had made for the front right. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Frogging is in that flipper's future; just wish I'd noticed before I got to the penultimate row. Once I get this all figured out I'm going to write out the corrections and keep them in the book.
I've also looked ahead to the pattern I plan to make next. The materials call for three yarns: main color, contrast color 1, and contrast color 2. Part of the pattern is knit in contrast color 3. Yet another sigh. Fortunately that particular color is used for the animal's fangs, so it's obvious that one is to use either white or off-white, but geeze louise, the list of materials should include ALL the yarns needed.
My only consolation is that I think this is going to make me a better knitter in the long run. I really have to consider how a finished section is supposed to look, and ask myself, "Will these instructions result in the desired shape? If not, what changes need to be made?" I'm getting a better understanding of how using the correct technique improves the finished product.
In my house, there are a few explainatioms for missing socks.
ReplyDelete1. The monster that lives in the dryer took them to The Twilight Zone again. 2. Furry friend decided he wanted the socks as a toy. 3.Hubby stuck them in his drawer by accident. :-) You should write the patter author and give her a good talking to!