Frog me once, frog me twice, and frog a third time lucky?

Ok, so the knit knit frog bit in the title - it's happening again, only this time it seems more like knit frog, frog. I'm knitting a cardigan, a simple one - or at least I'm trying to knit one. The yarn is linen - which has its own challenges, crisper with no elastic, so trickier to work lace in. The colour is lovely, my favorite soft blue grey green, the pattern is Rippled by Kirsten Singer. The yarn is 100%linen, Quince&Co, a fingering weight (4ply in 'old money') called Sparrow, in Blue Spruce, I'm knitting this in the round rather than flat, because I don't want seams where there need no be any. The cardigan is knit hem up, so I cast on enough stitches for both fronts and the back and worked the rib. The lace is a simple one - worked on right side and wrong side rows. So simple that it threw me, I thought I had the rhythm, but appers I did not.

Christmas Day I set out the freshly knit work and admired it, but something wasn't right, the lace didn't quite line up. I didn't take close up photos because I was embarrassed. The lace is a simple *k2 yo k2tog*, it to work required careful lining up. I didn't take too much care of the alignment of the right side and wrong side rows, and I was mashing up the instructions for the right, back and left sides all at once. The it that I didn't think through was the selvedge stiches, and the way the lace was spaced 2 stiches in from each side seam. So I frogged for the first time, well the first official time as I had several goes at knitting the ribbing, I've not knit much with linen and seemed to need a bit of practice to get the hang of it.

Just as I nearly finished the first skein of yarn, one side looked good, each column of lace had nice single yarn threads twisted into ladder type bars.

The other side didn't look so good, there were lumpy bits in my lace. Frog time, frog number two.

So while away on our post Christmas holiday in Invercargil - I frogged, not all the way but back to the ribbing and began again. I counted carefully and placed side seam markers to guide me in where the lace should go. And ...

This time the lace is perfect, each column is a nice neat row of twisted ladders. But ...

Somewhere, somehow it seems I can't count to 44 reliably twice as the number is stitches spare on the right and left sides between the lace and the front edge is different. Frog number three....

I will frog tonight and try try again. Counting and re counting as I set the side seam stitch markers. Or maybe I will spin and put this project in time out for a wee while.

Na Stella

 

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