Rewind

I'm not much of one for ripping back my knitting. When I make mistakes I generally catch them in time to correct or disguise them and, if not, then I can usually live with it. I find it distressing when I see some of the almost-complete projects that some of my friends have ripped back. So it was pretty much unprecedented when I ripped back a section this large:

Recently I've been working on a new bus project, a South Sea Treasures shawl. It wasn't a bus project to start with, there were far too many stiches and the pattern was far too fiddly, not to mention the frustratingly slow process of threading the far-too-small-holed beads. But by the time I reached the main section it was perfect for the bus and it lived in my handbag for several weeks.

The pattern is Russian with an English translation. There are three charts knitted in sequence followed by short rows to form a crescent. It was only by about half-way through the third chart that I really grasped what was going on in the symbols. I don't know if it's just a different convention of charting in Russian but I couldn't make my knitting look like other peoples' photos.

The symbol key shows dots for knit and dashes for purls but, from what I can gather, these are actually dots for stocking stitch and dashes for garter stitches. But this isn't what caused me to rip back dozens of rows, I can live with a little muddling between stocking stitch and garter stitch.

The main cause of my confusion was the third chart:

Someone else had suggested that there might be an error in the central stitch as it would need a decrease to maintain the stitch count. But the more fundamental problem I found was that the second chart is worked across 12 stitches and the third is worked across 14 stitches.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the mangled, crazy results of trying to align a 12 stitch and 14 stitch pattern but it was not pretty. The only reason I kept going with it for so long (to row 57) was that I couldn't work out how I would fix it if I *did* rip it back. But somewhere around row 57 I was struck by a revelation and realised that it wasn't row 30 that was misleading but rows 26 to 29.

This is what I think the chart should look like (count-wise, I make no comment on the actual stitch symbols):

It seems blindingly obvious in retrospect, I know. The chart starts off with 12 stitches then the increases in row 30 bring it up to 14 for the rest of the chart. There definitely isn't a decrease in row 30, that just makes the problem worse and leads to large swathes of ripping back. As I mentioned above, I think that rows 26 to 29 are actually all knit, then for rows 30 to 35 are alternating knit/purl to form stocking stitch.

On the whole, I'd recommend the pattern but look carefully at the charts and some of the photos on Ravelry before you start. I'm quite certaun now that the charted stocking stitch/garter stitch sections are effectively reversed throughout.

I completed the shawl with about two inches of yarn to go (from one beautiful, soft, luxurious skein of Manos lace). If - or maybe when - I make this again, I'll probably skip at least one repeat in the middle section of chart three and add a few horizontal repeats to make it a bit longer because, although it does go round my shoulders, I'm not too sure how I'll wear it.