Somehow, over this past year, I’ve amassed a ridiculous amount of Bugga. I’m really not certain how this happened, given that the first time I touched Bugga, I was underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great base but the way everyone talked about it, it was like it was made from unicorn hair. My first thought was, “Oh, it’s just yarn…and Little Traveller is way softer.” Still, I’ve somehow procured a large number of skeins…

Clearly, I needed a project that would use up a good number of these skeins and in Little Birds, I found what I was looking for! I knew that Tulip Tree Beauty would be the perfect background colour for this the moment I saw it and, thanks to a helpful sidetrade with Isabelly, I managed to get the two skeins of it that I needed! Tonight I cast on…and now I’m starting to realize just how long it’s going to take to do 84 rows of ribbing on 277 stitches in fingering weight yarn on size 1 needles. Crap! I contemplated going up a needle size since everyone says Bugga is a heavier fingering, but I don’t want it to be a loose or baggy fit. I’ll just have to check my gauge often.

1/31/10 - Six rows in (not counting the four that I did before I picked up the live stitches from the cast-on), and I’ve already found 2 mistakes. This irritates me - nothing irritates me more than mistakes or poorly written patterns, especially when it’s something obvious that should have been caught already.

To start with, the ribbing instructions. Now, if you look in the text of the pattern, it goes as follows:

Row 1 (WS): P2, k1, p1, k1, p3, rep from to 5 sts from end, k1, p1, k1, p2

Row 2: K2, p2, work one row buttonhole over next 6 sts, work 31 sts in pattern, work one row buttonhole over next 6 sts, work in pattern to end.

Now, when I read that, I interpreted the “work in pattern to end” to mean that I should do the same stitches in reverse - so k3, p1, k1, p1. I think that’s a fair assumption on my part. But on the first page of the pattern, in the pattern notes, it gives the beaded rib pattern this way:

Row1 (RS): K3, p3, rep from to end

Row 2 (WS): P3, k1, p1, k1, rep from to end

Okay, now I’ll be fair and admit that I should have checked in with the pattern notes first, so that’s my fault. But a well-written pattern would have the instructions written the same way in both places. I shouldn’t have to flip to the front page to know that I’m supposed to purl across that broken ribbing, it should be there in the pattern. Plus, I would like to point out that in the ribbing instructions on the front, the 2 selvedge stitches on either side are magically gone. That’s confusing in and of itself. Since this appears to be the only part of the pattern where the Beaded Rib Pattern is knit flat, it shouldn’t be any big deal to include those selvedge stitches. Like I said, write the instructions the same way in both places.

Now, that might not be seen as an error, more of a poor-wording situation. But the way the buttonhole is written out is definitely wrong. Basically you cast off 5 stitches, then you cast 5 stitches back on going the other way. You pass the last cast on stitch over the next stitch in the pattern as you continue to knit your way across, away from the buttonhole you just created. It’s written clearly enough, but here’s the problem - if you do it that way, you lose 2 stitches. Why? Because you need to cast on one more stitch than you cast off, since you’re passing that extra stitch over the next new stitch. So the pattern should tell you to cast off 5 stitches and cast on 6. I, of course, did not realize this until after I had finished the buttonhole row and was on the row going back towards the buttonholes. When I noticed I was missing stitches because the ribbing pattern wasn’t working out, it tipped me off that something was wrong. I had to drag out a finishing handbook and look up buttonhole construction and right there, at the top of the same set of instructions Ysolda wrote in her pattern in huge bold letters were the instructions to cast on one extra stitch than you cast off.

This is bothersome - did no one catch this mistake when they were test knitting? Did no one look at this and say, “Hey, this is unclear”? To make me feel even worse, there’s no errata for this pattern so I have to presume that I’m the only one who has noticed this error so far. And that really bothers me. I’m not a new knitter. I’m not incompetent. I don’t have troubles understanding written instructions, and I catch on really quickly. So how is it that I’m the only person going, “Hey, the instructions for your buttonhole are wrong!”

6 rows of ribbing down, 78 to go.

3/5/10 - ARGH!!! Okay, a few weeks ago, I finished the ribbing. When I tried it on, I realized that the buttonholes were just too far from the edge they needed to connect with - basically, it fit but it would fit VERY tightly. I’d rather have this project done really well, so I decided to rip back and move the buttonholes. But when I tried it on again tonight, I realized that it was just too small. So I’m going up to a medium which I think will be a much better fit. I ripped out alllllllll the gorgeous ribbing I had done (not a huge sacrifice, actually, because I’m happy to have something mindless to pull out during LOST), but when I started up again, I totally spaced on the fact that I was supposed to do a provisional cast on, even though it’s right there in the friggin’ instructions which I had just reread. Sometimes, my own stupidity baffles me. And here I was, wondering why the casting on had gone so much more quickly than it had last time! Sigh.

3/15/10 - Dear Bugga,
I’m sorry that I ever thought you were “just another yarn” because clearly, you are so much more than that. You are soft and warm and just delightful to knit with. I think you might be my new favourite.

I’m really loving having to do this ribbing all over again because it’s just. so. soothing. I really like that feeling. Last night I went to see Alice in Wonderland (take my advice and skip it) and since I knew it wasn’t a movie that I needed to concentrate on, I knit the whole way through without making any mistakes. God, I love this project.

4/9/10 - Last night, I finished the ribbing on this - yay! I’ve loved LOVED the ribbing - clearly, I always need to have something mindless like this to work on. So I got to the end of the ribbing, which is done flat. Then, you join the sweater in the round for the colourwork part of it and, at the end, steek that to make the V-neck. Here’s my issue - I did the ribbing and ended on a Wrong Side row the way I’m supposed to. I’m then supposed to cast on 8 stitches, putting a marker in the middle of them to indicate the beginning of a round. Then I’m supposed to join for working in the round. Sounds easy, right?

The problem is - the stitches are going the wrong way. If I join in the round and start knitting, the wrong side will be facing out. The pattern TOLD me to end on the wrong side row, cast on the extra stitches, and join, but clearly there’s some sort of mistake, right? I mean, I could always knit back the other way and then join it for working in the round - but the pattern doesn’t tell me to do that. I thought about this and tried casting on a dozen different ways and turning it differently (which is a dumb thing to do since there are only two ways to turn it - right side facing or wrong side facing) and even sketching a little diagram. I decided to sleep on it and this morning, realizing that I would just have to make it up as I go, I decided to just knit a row before casting on the extra stitches to join it in the round. I’m now two rows into the first Body Chart - I would be further along but I messed up on the leaf motif (already?!?!?!) and had to rip back.

Here’s the thing - that was an easy fix. It’s not like it was really that hard for me to knit a row and then cast on the stitches. But all of these little errors really bother me. It bothers me even more to read everyone else’s project pages and see that no one else had this issue. I see people complaining about other things along the way, but I feel like I’m the only one to say, “This and this are poorly written/incorrect.” I’ve shown the pattern instructions to multiple other knitters, all of whom also notice the errors, which means that I’m not just bad at reading these instructions or anything. What bothers me even more is the idea that a knitter with less skill or experience than I have might not be able to make these small, necessary corrections. Knitting is hard enough without having to tinker with instructions. I feel crappy right now, putting this into my project page, because I feel like people are going to read this and that I’ll come off as harsh or angry or jaded or something, which certainly isn’t my intent. I just want the pattern to be clear and if, by chance, someone else is working on this pattern and struggling at the same points that I am, I don’t want them to search the project pages in vain for that kinship. I get tired of checking for errata or someone else’s fix to a situation only to read that everyone else thought the pattern was easy and flawless…

4/10/10 - Okay, so I know that most of my project notes thus far have been complaints, so I wanted to report that today, I loved working on this. I can’t believe how quickly it’s going! I think I’m a fairly fast knitter, but today I felt like I was on fire! I took a bag full of Bugga to my knitting group today to have the ladies help me choose which colours to use in it. I think that I might just make the birds two colours - I was thinking of doing orange, red, and purple, but now I’m thinking just red and purple. I’m already almost through the second vine motif, and I’m just loving it. The birds are so darling! They’re so little - much littler than I expected, despite the really good photos everyone takes and the fact that it’s right there in the title, “Little Birds”. They are just darling, and I really love them. The more I work with the Bugga, the more I love it. If there’s one thing I love, it’s the very subtle variegation that Gryphon does in her dye jobs. I’m just so excited that it’s going so well! I measured the birds and I’m not really on gauge - I have a few more stitches than I should - but I’m thinking I might just ignore that. Stupid, maybe, but I really think it’s going to work out just fine.

4/27/10 - This project was flying along when I was doing the body, but for some reason now that I’m on the sleeves, it’s slowed down a lot. I realized earlier this week that there was no way I was going to be able to make this sweater out of just 2 skeins of the Tulip Tree Beauty. I was halfway down the first sleeve and seeing that there was no way I’d have enough for a second sleeve and the rest of the body. Luckily, the night I realized that I found someone selling another skein of it - thank you lord!!! For some reason, I am not making the correct gauge on the sleeves. They are way shorter than they should be, according to the schematic, so I’m going to have to extend them. I was always planning on making them an inch or two longer because the model in the picture clearly has flood sleeves that stop just a few inches short of her wrist which always drive me nuts. So I’m just going to have to alter the pattern a bit in my head and make the sleeves as long as I need them to be. I’m also going to measure what I have of the body a few times. Before I go to the extraordinary length of attaching the sleeves and cutting the whole thing up the middle, I want to make sure it’s not going to be too darn short!!!!

5/8/10 - Dear Little Birds sweater,
Screw you.
Screw your shoulder seams.
Screw your decreases.
I have spent the last few hours very happily cleaning and making cupcakes for Mother’s Day. These cupcakes did not once make me feel inept, foolish, or like I was overthinking the instructions, which is how you’ve made me feel every day this week.
Now that the cupcakes are complete, I am going to do other projects and continue to ignore you.
Don’t blame me, you brought this on yourself.
~Hester
A little later
Here! Here is the perfect video for how to do the damned decreases. If it said ANYWHERE in the pattern that this was supposed to be a Centered Double Decrease or if two more sentences had been added in fully explaining how this is to be done, I wouldn’t have had 48 hours worth of trying to figure this out. It’s not AT ALL difficult and, in fact, it’s something I’ve done in lace knitting before. So once again, the poor communication of this pattern has caused me to have a headache.

6/1/10 - As of tonight, I am done with the little birds on my Little Birds sweater! I have done the shoulder shaping, bound off across the back and am now prepared to start sewing around the steek! I am so SO excited - I think I might be done with the sweater by the end of this week. I found one (hopefully) final error in the pattern. The instructions for the shaping tell me to sssk. Here’s the definition for sssk, according to the pattern:

Slip 3 stitches individually as if to knit, then knit those 2 stitches together

I mean jeez, was there really no one who re-read this pattern to catch the fact that it should read 3 stitches, not 2? Seriously?

June 25, 2010 - It’s finished. Victory is mine. Pictures forthcoming.

Final edits - because I wasn’t getting my gauge the correct length, I had to add in extra repeats. So instead of doing 3 repeats of birds prior to joining the sleeves, I did 4. This, of course, threw off the rate of neckline decreases, but I did some complex math to make it all work. (I wish I could be more descriptive, but even I’m not entirely sure how it worked out!) Since everyone complained about the sleeves coming up short, and since my length gauge was off, I took that into very careful consideration. I added on two more repeats of birds to the sleeves. I understand that this sweater is (apparently) supposed to have 3/4 length sleeves, but it’s a heavy sweater and I like full-length on something like that. This, of course, meant that I had way more sleeve stitches when I connected them to the body than the pattern called for. However, I again used complex math to figure it out. I felt free to completely ignore the bird repeats on the upper body charts since, as a lot of other people have pointed out, they are clearly FLAWED since they chop off the little birds halfway up. (Headless birds? That’s the stuff nightmares are made of!) I did a full 3 repeats of the birds and threw in an extra vine over top of the last row of birds to, again, make up for my short length gauge. I did a lot of measuring throughout this whole process because I did not want this to be too small or too large and was very worried about that since I couldn’t, you know, try it on or anything! As for the collar - I tried to only pick up 2 of every 3 stitches on the diagonals, but I couldn’t in most places. Because of the nature of the yarn I was working with, I could see holes and gaps in some of the spots where I skipped a stitch and in Hester-land, that is un.ac.cept.a.ble. I probably could have picked up fewer stitches in the back part of the collar instead of going straight across, since it sticks out a bit. So I were to do this sweater again, I would just reverse Ysolda’s instructions - pick up all stitches on the diagonals and pick up 2 of every 3 stitches on the straightaways.

As you can see, it fits beautifully and after getting a bath and drying, it lies so beautifully flat that I can’t even believe I created this.

Definitely my new favourite sweater.