the blue blog archives: what's your problem?

Okay, you warned me. You told me that there were big problems with the decreases in the men's zip raglan jacket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I had no idea how serious you were. It's bad. Let's begin by looking at that pattern picture again.

So the front of the sweater in the picture looks great. When the ribs come up to the raglan decrease line from the body and the sleeve, they match up. Where there are knits on the body, there are knits on the sleeve. It's all lovely. Now, if my calculations are correct, you cannot achieve this look following any of the instructions as given. The only way I can imagine that she got hers to line up is that she knitted the smallest body size and the largest sleeve size. Those are the only sets of numbers in the pattern that can make the ribs match.

Here's the problem. The ribbing on body and sleeves is a 4x4 rib. When you divide the body at the armholes after knitting in the round, she has you put eight stitches on a holder at the sides where the sleeves will be joined in. For every size except that smallest size those stitches are an even rib repeat (4K 4P or 4P 4K). So far, so good. Now, these eight stitches will be sewn to eight stitches from the sleeve for the underarm. In order for the ribbing to line up in the raglan decreases as it does in the picture, the ribbing needs to be at the exact same point on body and sleeve. That means, you'd need to remove exactly the same section of ribbing from the sleeve that you do from the body. But she has you knit the sleeve so that the round starts and ends with purls. Even if we ignore how the increases affect our stitch count, there's no way that the last four and first four stitches in the round are ever going to match the eight stitches from the body. Because the sleeve begins and ends with the SAME type of stitches, they just aren't ever going to form an even rib with 4 knits and 4 purls. Add to that the fact that in one of the sizes, the increases leave you with just 2 purls in the middle and in another size 6 purls, and it's clear that the sleeves are the real problem here.

Shannon and I put our heads together and worked out exactly what needs to be changed in order to make things work. First the body stitches have to be divided as in the first size, with 2K - 4P - 2K (or 2P - 4K - 2P) being removed for the underarm. And then the sleeve increases need to end as in the largest size, with the sleeve beginning and ending with 2P (or 2K), so that there will be 4P (or 4K) in the center to fit nicely into 4x4 rib. (Yes, you could change the sleeve so that the first stitches and the last stitches are opposite, but then the increases won't look as nice in the center of the sleeve. See....)

With just a few changes, you can still follow the instructions as written for body and sleeve, keeping even ribbing on the body and a symmetrical line of increases on the sleeves and still make the ribs line up.

BODY:
For the ribs from the body to match up with the sleeves, the body stitches should be redistributed.

39 1/2": follow original instructions
42": 38 sts for front, place marker, 80 sts for back, place marker, 38 sts for front
46 1/2": 42 sts for front, place marker, 88 sts for back, place marker, 42 sts for front
51": 46 sts for front, place marker, 96 sts for back, place marker, 46 sts for front

SLEEVES:
For the sleeve to begin and end with 2P (or 2K), the stitch count has to be 64 or 72.

39 1/2": cast on 48 sts, beginning and ending round with K2; work only 8 increases to 64 sts
42": cast on as instructed; work only 8 increases to 64 sts
46 1/2": cast on as instructed; work 12 increases to 72 sts
51": cast on 48 sts, beginning and ending round with K2; work 12 increases to 72 sts

posted by alison at 10:37 am | in LMKG , man sweater

Comments

Thanks for doing this, Alison. I was contemplating this sweater, and I know that this would really bother me.

Posted by: JJ at January 25, 2006 10:51 AM

Get yer math on! Nice job. Glad to hear that you conquered the bad news about the sweater.

I am so excited about getting my sock on--roll on Feb 1!

Posted by: suzanne at January 25, 2006 10:56 AM

This book is just riddled with problems. Too bad, because the patterns seem to be very nice.

Posted by: Colleen at January 25, 2006 11:09 AM

THANK YOU!!! SInce I am not an expert knitter, I automatically assume I am doing something wrong when I hit a problem in a pattern. So, thank you for making me feel validated. I am going to print out your post and re-do according to your calculations.

Posted by: rebecca at January 25, 2006 11:17 AM

Oh, for the love of ...

That's crazy. Insane. You are a goddess, and I would never, ever do that.

Posted by: Colleen at January 25, 2006 11:17 AM

Did you check tht purl site for erratta? I remember seeing some at one time, while reading that the second edition would be printed with the corrected patterns.
There seems to be alot of bloggers having to refigure patterns due to errors lately. hmmm.

Posted by: Julia at January 25, 2006 11:29 AM

Thanks! I'll print that out and add it to my big ol' stack of corrections for that book.

Posted by: Chris at January 25, 2006 11:35 AM

Holy cow! Sockapaloooza and a sweater re-write? In the same 24 hours? You're a miracle of multi-tasking.

Posted by: Ann at January 25, 2006 11:39 AM

Thanks Alison! I was thinking about making this sweater and these corrections will be very helpful. I made the big mistake of starting the hourglass sweater last week. A third of the way up the body and I remember people saying that the book had a lot of errors. How many errors could there possibly be for a sweater knit in the round from the bottom-up? You'd be surprised. I'm trying to figure out how to work with what I got.

Posted by: Sara at January 25, 2006 11:41 AM

*hrmpf. either I have to rip out everything and start over again or just go along with the mismatching ribs. But thanks for your corrections :)

Posted by: Sibylle at January 25, 2006 11:58 AM

The sample knitters and editor should be ashamed of themselves to have allowed a book with so many errors to be printed. Everyone who bought the book should get a free copy of an edited and corrected version. Geez.

Posted by: Maureen at January 25, 2006 12:08 PM

Great that I've read this....I saw somebody knitting up this thing and am awaiting for my copy of the book....just because I want to try this out. Good to know the trick. ;)

Posted by: Elemmaciltur at January 25, 2006 12:45 PM

I love when someone works out a problem with a pattern and shares it with the world, awesome.

LMKG is a really beautiful book, but the work put into developing it is horrifically careless. It seems the goal is not to provide tested, workable patterns, the goal is to sell books. Unfortunate. No one cares about workmanship anymore.

Posted by: Maggie at January 25, 2006 12:52 PM

Oops. I guess I forgot to worry about this! Seth apparently doesn't mind (and he's picky) so that helps explain why.

http://flickr.com/photos/crankyisgood/4591376/in/set-528303/

Posted by: Daphne at January 25, 2006 12:54 PM

Hi Alison,
is it just me or does the left side not match with the right side on that picture in the book? It seems all crooked. The raglan decrease meets the collar at a much higher point on the left side.

Posted by: estra at January 25, 2006 1:48 PM

I didn't notice anything but I did do the smallest size. It was a miracle that it fit the person. FYI there is no arrata for this pattern on the purl website.

Posted by: jean at January 25, 2006 1:52 PM

I am so glad I'm not the only person who has had problems with this book! I TRIED the hourglass sweater and re-knit the raglan decreases and neck not once, not twice, but THREE times. The SSKs and K2togs were all in the wrong place, so that I had shoulders that were slanting in the same direction, etc, etc. Then I ran out of yarn and tried to make it a V-neck. Then I gave it up as a bad job and re-knit the yarn into a wrap. It's like The Project That Will Not Die.

The Purl website did not have an appropriate errata for this pattern either. You'd think these folks would be serious enough knitters to get their patterns right.

But thanks for this, Allison! You are truly a knitting goddess, AND a mom of twins too! What an example to us all.

Posted by: Kate at January 25, 2006 2:16 PM

Wow, I'm in awe of your mathematical skills. Just in complete and utter awe. Way to go!

And BTW, it does look like the shoulders are wonky in the pattern photo above, like estra said. Weird.

Posted by: katie at January 25, 2006 2:25 PM

It's really a shame that such a beautiful book is so troublesome and inaccurate -- surely they could have test-knit the items?

Posted by: Erica at January 25, 2006 2:59 PM

Great - I just gave this book to a novice knitter...I will have to print the errata and give it to her. What addition is corrected if any - I just purchased it

Posted by: Darci at January 25, 2006 3:40 PM

Well, you totally lost me but, ummm, yeah, good luck with that.

Posted by: Carole at January 25, 2006 5:21 PM

Ohhh Thanks for doing this. It is a great looking sweater but I'm a sweater newbie and this would have given me head pains to figure out. And maybe some burning of the wool or temper tantrums.

Posted by: freecia at January 25, 2006 5:31 PM

I wonder at just how good a knitter many of the so-called big designers really are - not to mention the test knitters. Maybe the patterns in this book were not knitted at all by the designer - she just plugged in the numbers and the test knitters fudged. I just looked at the corrections on the Purl Soho website. Gads! So many, but we are assured that corrections were made to the 2nd and 3rd editions, so the 4th edition should have been error free. However, there are no corrections given for a raglan jacket. Regarding the Hourglass sweater, the corrections (or at least, some corrections) are on the website (www.purlsoho.com)

Posted by: Susan at January 25, 2006 6:18 PM

Yes, Julia, as this book is notorious for its errors, I did check the errata page for corrections (there aren't any for this pattern). Having already knit the hourglass sweater from the book and having seen friends knit the child's placket neck pullover, I expected the usual raglan decrease/marker issues, but this sweater has more problems than that.

But after seeing Daphne's sweater (check the link in the comments, folks!), I'm thiking it really isn't a big deal if the ribs don't match. Daphne , your sweater looks GREAT! This ribbing problem is an annoying one, but it's not a fatal error by any means (not like the corrections that were made to the child's placket neck pullover). Oh, and I don't think that the shoulders are different. Notice that the zipper isn't laying completely flat on the one side, which might explain why that side looks a little lower.

All that being said, I LOVE this book! I adore all the patterns. As you can see, I'm more than willing to put in the effort to correct a couple of errors to make the patterns. They're that good! I think the editions in the stores now should contain all the corrections that are on the errata page. But there are still issues, like the ribbing issue in this pattern and - ehem - I just found an error in the little child hat pattern. More to come on that one next week!

Posted by: alison at January 25, 2006 6:20 PM

"Last Minute" has more problems than a math book...and I can just see you and shannon working this one out...i would have been like, "ah, yeah...how about doing contrasting sleeves in stockinette...more wine?" Joelle should be thanking you guys...and should post this on the Purl web site....

Posted by: lisa b at January 25, 2006 6:44 PM

I admire your dedication. I do believe that would become a 'back-up' project very quickly in my hands.

Now I can't wait to see it finished!

Pip

Posted by: Pip at January 25, 2006 6:48 PM

Go you! I was afraid that this sweater might meet the same fate as the Lace Leaf. It has not been the usual smooth sailing with these patterns lately!

Posted by: Julia at January 25, 2006 8:27 PM

oh man Alison-- I haven't gotten that far yet, but I am so happy you figured it out! Phew! You had me worried there for a second that I was going to have to rip. I am doing the 42" size (and am only on sleeve 1) and need to just reposition the sts on the body I guess :) Thanks for posting all the work!

Posted by: Dani at January 25, 2006 8:47 PM

Thanks for posting the correction. I have a later edition of the book that has the known problems corrected, however these patterns are still screwy and it takes some knitting experience to get through them. I like most of the items and I don't mind implementing my own work-arounds to end up with a completed project. I would not recommend this book to a beginner, though. Again, thanks for your work.

Posted by: Lynn S. at January 26, 2006 11:56 AM