Hm...how does the other piece look? Maybe they did that for seaming purposes? So that when you sew the pieces together, the bugs pattern won't be interrupted. (I'm just guessing here; I've never seen the pattern so I couldn't tell you.)

Good work on getting it more centered, though! :-)

I bow to your bravery. Steeking! Yikes! I can't imagine why they had you start where you did, but it doesn't matter -- it is beautiful!

Unfortunately, there's no seaming to save me here, Becky. All knit in the round. And there are half bugs at the sides which have been annoying me no end the whole time. But I've been saying to myself, this is the way the Norwegian sweaters are done - the pattern is centered on the front and partial patterns appear at the sides. And then it's not centered. Aaaack! If they'd started me at the "right" point to center the pattern, there'd only be two columns of the bug body left over on the side and not five. Or they could have simply added or subtracted a few stitches to the whole to center everything and get rid of extra bug parts on the sides.

Oh well. At least I've learned a lesson: never again will I trust what they say about where to start without counting out pattern and stitches for myself!

It looks great Alison!

Sometimes when I come to a problem like this in a pattern I start double guessing things and think, "this is such an obvious problem that it must be here for a reason." Why else would it not have been caught? But then, I think that's crazy and just do it my way.

Go Alison, you way looks great!

Sorry I don't have any good ideas for you, but I had to tell you that the bugs look wonderful! I've been admiring the pattern for some time, and it is cute as a bug's ear (sorry about the pun). Fortunately, you did learn to count out the pattern for yourself before blindly going along with the pattern. Yet another leap into learning creative knitting techniques!

Could it be a mistake (misprint) in the pattern?

I thought of that Melissa, but then I thought so many people must have made this pattern (it's one I hear people talk about a lot) and yet I didn't find anything on the web about errata for it. Perhaps Leigh is right, there is a reason for it - it's supposed to be that way. I still wish they'd left out the point to start the body (like they did for the sleeves), so I could have done it myself.

I wouldn't worry about the asymmetry. It looks great anyway. Can't guess why they made the pattern like that, though. But IMHO it's not uncommon with strange patterns like that. Maybe it's because it is so darn difficult to catch errors in knitting instructions - you can't find them by simply reading it - you have to knit it!
Greetings from Birthe in Denmark

Don't know if this is the answer of why the pattern was written the way it was but, looking at the photo, it appears that the bottom row of bugs and the top row of bugs line up one above the other with the middle row being offset from those two. In other words, the bottom and top rows if laid one next to the other would line up like good soldiers. The middle row would be staggered to appear between the other bugs. If this is the logic, then if the sweater were made longer so there would be another row of bugs, those could be expected to line up with the current middle row. Possibly if the neck were done above a row of the off-set bugs, it would be symetrical. Whatever, it's a good looking sweater. Your sons are so handsome no one is going to be noticing an asymetrical neckline.

Hi Alison,
I understand your frustration about the pattern. I started a ladybug pillow (strange that it's a ladybug too!) from Zoe Mellor's Animal Knits book and have put it down for a couple of months because the ladybug in the middle isn't symmetrical! There is no reason for it not to be, the pillow is a red square with a ivory square in the middle with one large black and red ladybug in the middle of the ivory. But the bugs lower legs are not alike! I thought I was reading the chart wrong and ripped out and reknit twice until I put it away to get some perspective on it. Sometimes I think that designers have a different mindset about these things, and symmetry and balance are not necessarily as important as the overall "look" of the finished project, especially if the designer is right-brained. (or is it left-brained? whichever is the creative side) I think a lot of knitters are more logical and methodical than the designers who create the patterns we knit. (After all look at Kaffe Fascett's patterns!)