"Read The Problem"

Or in my case, read the ENTIRE pattern. My maternal grandfather's second career was as a college math/actuarial science professor, & "Read the problem" was a famous saying of his. So famous, in fact, that his students gave him a plaque engraved with that quote.



Last week I reached the raglan shaping at the top of the sleeves that I've been working on. There's a tricky bit of shaping at the very end of the sleeves, but I managed to do it. Then I looked at the small triangle of knitting, & the next part of the instructions, & wondered how in the world I was supposed to pick up as many stitches as they said. I held the sleeve up to my arm & wondered how in the world it was supposed to be long enough at the top.



I looked at the picture of the sweater, & it didn't look like the sleeves had any problem fitting on the model; but it also looked like they couldn't possibly have started the short row shaping directly upon finishing the raglan shaping for the underarm. Then I looked more closely at the instructions. I'd made it through all the tricky shaping without any problems understanding what was meant. However, it turns out I'd skipped one very simple, but perhaps too cryptic line.



It turns out that skipping an instruction to knit 63 rows makes quite a difference. I had to frog out all the short rows & start again at the end of the raglan shaping. I wish that they'd said something like "Continue in" or "Knit established" right before the "Patt 45(47,57,67)" on that line. It would have been a bit more clear that way.




One week & a bunch more knitting later, & I'm finally at the spot that I thought I reached last week -- almost ready to start the final section of the sleeves. I hope that at least I'll be a bit quicker knitting the short rows the second time around, after having some practice.