Well Underway

I began this cardigan about a month ago, but set it aside to work on baby gifts. At that time I had finished about half of the back. Last week I picked up where I left off and after a couple of marathon knitting sessions, I've progressed as far as finishing the back, the two fronts and part of one sleeve. If all goes well, I may have a new sweater to wear by the end of the week!

I've come across a few errors in the pattern instructions for Cotton Cardigan from Sarah Dallas Knitting. The first snag I found was in the start of the garter rib panel on the left front. If you follow the instructions as written, it will not use all the stitches on the needles. I decided to do an online search to find out if there were any corrections published for this sweater. I found corrections for other patterns in the book, but not any for this one.

I did however, find many opinions and reviews that may have dissuaded me from purchasing this book in the first place had I read them. I'm glad I didn't know about them though, because I really like the items in this book and plan to knit several of them. The biggest complaint most people have is that the photographs, though beautiful, do not show the knitted items clearly. I had noticed this myself and it is a little frustrating, but not a huge problem for me.

The most troubling complaint is that many people commented on the large number of errors in the patterns. I assume they were speaking from the personal experience of knitting these patterns, but they never elaborated on what the errors were. Perhaps they were just repeating something they had heard others report. So far I have knitted only two patterns from this book. The first, a pair of mittens, was error free. The second, is the sweater I'm working on right now. Here are the corrections I've made to the pattern so far (corrections are in red bold caps):

Corrections
Sarah Dallas Knitting
Cotton Cardigan

Page 22
Left Front
Row 1 K14 (19: 18: 23), *P2, K2, rep from*
FOUR times, P2, K10 (8: 12: 10).

Page 23
Shape neck
Bind off 8 (9: 9: 10) sts, PURL to end. Dec 1 st at
neck edge on next 6 rows.

Page 23
Sleeves
Row 1 K16 (17: 18: 19) *P2, K2, rep from*
THREE times, P2, K16 (17: 18: 19).

When I'm finished knitting this sweater, I'll submit these mistakes and any others I may find to the publisher. I think I have corrected the mistakes as the designer intended the pattern to be in the first place, but who knows? These corrections work though and result in a look exactly the same as the photographed sweater in the book.

The yarn I'm using is Cestari, 75% cotton, 25% wool. It is manufactured by the sheep and shepherds of Chester Farms in Churchville, Virginia. I like the description on the label: An all natural, very unique yarn. I'm enjoying knitting with it, but I have to be careful about not knitting too long in one sitting as cotton can give your hands more of a work out than wool. The texture of this yarn is a little on the rustic side and I really like that.