Thursday, October 4, 2007

Hooded Cape Progress

20071004 Hooded CapeYes, I have been knitting, just not blogging about it.  Here is the in-progress picture of the hooded cape.

It's a very easy project, and the yarn is soft and warm... very warm.

Pattern:  Plymouth Hooded Cape N011
Yarn: Baby Alpaca Grande

The pattern is about one page, but I think they gave away some clarity to make it fit on one page.  Here is a part of the pattern:

"... Next Row: Dec 1 st before each marker - 264 sts.  Work 11 rows st st.

Next Row: Dec 1 st after each marker (242 sts.  Work 11 rows st st.

Decreasing alternately before each marker in one decrease row and after each marker in the next, repeat decrease rows every 10th row twice (198 sts), every 8th row twice (154 sts), every 6th row twice (110 sts) every 4th row once (88 sts)."

The paragraph beginning "Decreasing alternately" threw me.  It looked to me like I would be knitting 11 rows, and then knitting 9 more rows before the next decrease row... 19 rows between one decrease row and the next.  I changed it to be more like "... [decrease row, work 9 rows] twice (198 sts)...", and so forth.

What threw me was they were so specific in the beginning and then they just lumped the rest of the cape into one paragraph.  And!  there was no schematic to tell me how long it should be, so I couldn't even use the row gauge to figure out how many rows should be in the cape.  I should have read the pattern before purchasing.  Whatever.  It worked out.

Another change I made was in the hood.  The pattern called for a pointy headed hood.  I added decreases in the center of the back of the hood to round it out.

A while ago I made a resolution to follow a pattern.  Well, not this time.  Maybe next time.



2 comments:

  1. Well, I would be quite confused by those instructions as well (and always have been), but whatever you did seems to have worked out quite well! Nothing wrong with it so far.
    I'm not one to follow patterns, and like you, I've attempted to do ONE simple project doing it all "by the book". Sorry, same thing happened -- I just couldn't! Maybe one day.

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  2. Thanks, Tallguy. I'm glad I'm not the only one with impaired pattern following abilities. Sometimes it's a good thing... sometimes not so much.

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