Tuesday Needlework: Ravellenics Progress

I posted last Tuesday about Ravelry's Ravellenics Winter Games and thought I'd give an update on my progress thus far. I've made it halfway there! I finished the back of my sweater project last night. The pattern is definitely not my most favorite! I've had to accommodate for poorly written instructions, a confusing chart, and miscalculated stitch counts. It's been quite the project to say the least.

detail of cables

I was very excited about the pattern when I first discovered it. I did a pattern search on Ravelry after seeing a similar design (likely store-bought, but cute) at church one Sunday. I just love the way the sweater hung and looked so warm and cozy, but a little country too. I'm a boot and jeans girl, so this was a really great design for me to pursue.

Back of sweater, with a lifeline! 

However, after tracking down the errata and getting a new chart, I soon came to realize that the stitch count was off by 16 stitches. The directions say to increase every other row for 16 rows, which means I get 16 increased stitches in this section. (8*2) The stitch count was supposed to be 122, but mine was coming out to 106. Hmm.. so I decided to go ahead with the stitch count I was getting following the directions - which incidentally was the same as what the chart indicated - and disregard the stitch count.

Blocky, but think it will work

After making it up to the decreases section, I realized that their stitch count was still off, so I would end up with about 22 stitches for my neck and shoulder section. This wasn't real good, since I don't have a pin neck. To fix this without taking out everything I had done and starting over again, I decided to decrease up to 80 stitches, then knit even for the remaining six rows. And instead of decreasing 8 stitches over 4 rows, I decreased only 7 over the four, giving me my final stitch count of 36 that I was after. It's a little blocky, but because it will be sewn together I'm not too worried about it. I think I can make it look pretty good in the seaming section and the ribbed neck and edges will straighten the rest of it out.

This has been such a confusing pattern that I think I will deserve a medal when all is said and done!