At Last!

Tonight's post title is very worthy of an exclamation point. I finished the hood on Naomi's sweater and it was hard won.

 

See those charming ridges there at the top? Don't let them fool you.

The pattern, although very clear, told me to do something that I just knew (well, thought I knew) was not going to come out right at all. This is the tale of what happened.

I was knitting happily along this morning while listening to my latest audio book. The hood was nearly to the point that I would begin the shaping of the neckband and then the body of the sweater. Once the last repeat was finished, I consulted the pattern, which read something like, "decrease an even amount of stitches over a total number of stitches that will not give you and even amount at the end of your row".

I'm simply paraphrasing here, the actual verbage may have been a bit different. I digress. I reread the pattern several times and grabbed the calculator. The stitches over which I was to be decreasing was 78. The pattern instructed me to evenly decrease 20 stitches. Now, I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure that 78 divided by 20 does not a nice whole even number make. To be sure, I checked with a calculator. I was right. The result is something with a decimal point and a lot of numbers following after it.

Regardless, I plowed forth, because I am a good and loving sister and a (somewhat) faithful knitter. In short, I sent messages to three fellow knitters, gobbled down a pint of Haagen Daz, and went through at least a dozen pieces of paper while trying to work the calculations. Evenly spaced my arse.

I worked furiously in the car on the drive to work (Alex drove), in the breakroom, during my down time at work, and everywhere in between. Finally, after several hours and a bit  a lot of swearing, I got the answer that was needed. I let out a little yip of excitement so shrill it nearly caused my coworker, David to jump three feet off the ground. He doesn't knit, but he lends a supportive ear when I come into work after a project has really been causing me fits. Such a nice young man.

I got home and finished the hood. Now, I'm going to do a little clever placing of stitch markers and start the rest of the sweater.

Good night.