Deli

I loved the pattern Deli from Rowan Cafe Classic as soon as I saw it. My daughter's birthday is in June, so I'm knitting it for her. I'm using the Rowan Cashcotton yarn in Apple green. It really is lucious yarn and knits like a dream. In addition to the cotton, cashmere, and polyamide, it also has some angora, which gives it a soft almost silvery halo. The color does not photograph well, but it really does remind me of those tiny, fuzzy green apples you see on the tree in late Spring. I'm making good progress; the back and both fronts are complete. One and a half sleeves to go, plus the lace edging.

I've only had one set back so far while knitting it. I knit the left front, completing first the decreases to the waistline, then the increases after passing it. After finishing the last increase row, the pattern instucted you to knit straight, stopping twenty rows below where you began the armhole decreases on the back. I dutifully spread out the back and counted the rows between the last increase row and the first armhole row. It was 34 rows, which I carefully jotted down on the paper I'd been using to keep notes (my brain resembles a sieve some days). 34 rows less 20 rows is 14 rows, so I proceeded to knit the 14 rows. At that point, the instructions for decreasing for the slope on the front neckline began. With no problems I finished the left front. I then began the right front and all was well until I reached the part about stopping 20 rows from the armhole. I was sure I had written down the number of rows to knit, and checked my notes. Sure enough, there it was, "34 rows" with a nice circle drawn round it for emphasis. So I knit 34 rows and began the decreases for the neckline slope and continued on, following the pattern until I finished the right front. Then I laid the two front pieces down to see how they matched up. Auggh! I had forgotten that I was not supposed to knit 34 rows, but 34 minus 20, or 14 rows! Duh! It was a sad job ripping that front all the way back to the last increase row before the armhole and reknitting it.

Also, I can't figure out why the pattern uses K2TBL for left slanting decreases instead of SSK. The right slanting decreases are K2Tog, which pairs nicely with SSK. I wasn't entirely sure that it would make a difference, so I did try the K2TBL on two decrease rows, but the slant is quite visible to the left. I went back to SSK, which makes a less visible left slant, and matches K2tog more closely. The designer is Martin Storey and I would have thought he would care how the decreases match up, but what do I know?

Well enough for now. I'll try to load some pictures tomorrow.