Gee, Math is Hard

I'm photographing my stash and my projects for Ravelry, which gives me a chance to revisit old WIPs - or in this case, old mistakes.

Last fall, I decided that the Lana Grossa Croisette Cardigan would be a lovely Christmas sweater. Instead of Croisette, I decided to knit it in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, in a lovely Christmas green. I made some other changes, too, re-writing the pattern so I could knit the body all in one piece, instead of fronts and back. And I didn't like the idea of sewing on the lace border - it made more sense to do the border first, then pick up stitches to knit the body.

It wasn't easy to work out the directions for the translated from German pattern, but eventually I figured it out and produced this lovely lace border. And I picked up the stitches, as planned, and worked the one-piece body.


It wasn't until I started the sleeve border that something seemed wrong - three repeats of the lace were awfully snug around my arm.

Then I tried on the sweater. And discovered that I'd have to corset like Dita Von Teese to get this to wrap around my waist.


What went wrong? When I planned the number of lace repeats, I was only counting how many stitches I'd want to pick up for the body. It turns out I should have been counting inches. And I need at least half again as may.

So once I can work myself up to do it, this picture will be all that remains of my first attempt at the sweater. The whole thing has to be frogged, so I can do a longer border and begin again. Maybe in time for this Christmas.