Knit AIMEE with me?

[lisascenic]

-- the first time you do the pattern repeat you just follow the directions; you knit rows 1-6 as written for the lace, then 6 more with two decrease rows for the stockinette. I did that part okay.
-- then it says, "cont in patt, dec 1 st at each end of 3rd row". Of course the 3rd row HAS a decrease in it already as written. And am I supposed to do all 12 rows before moving on to the next bit...
-- then it says, "work 9 rows, ending with a WS row". I guess my question is where am I at this point? did I just do a whole repeat? Or am I starting after the 3rd row with the decrease.
-- then it says, "inc 1 st at each end of next and every following 4th row..." but does that mean every 4 rows, or does it mean every row #4 in the 12 row repeat?

Oy vay! Can you see where my confusion lies? It's actually funny how hard it is to describe your own confusion. It's confusing!

Okay, here's how I did it, and everyone else can laugh and laugh if I have been a boneheaded knitter.

I see the pattern as

six rows of stockinette, with yarn doubled on small needles
switch to larger needles
one row of stockinette (knit)
four rows of lace
one row of stockinette (purl)
switch back to smaller needles

I don't think that the designer intends to have any regularly scheduled increases or decreases in the twelve row pattern.  She'll tell you when you need to increase or decrease when you get to those parts.

So, as I understand it, you knit these twelve rows, and then incorporate whatever instructions she throws at you whenever they happen in your twelve row units.  So, if you need to do something after row nine, you increase or decrease or whatever, but keep going on the stripe pattern.

You may see what I mean by looking at my photos of the parts of the sweater laying out on the floor.  Increases and decreases happen, but you just keep knitting away at your twelve rows of pattern.

I'll admit that I was totally perplexed by the structure of the lace section, so I just adapted my pattern so that all the actually lace sections follow rows five and six.  I see no reason to over complicate my knitting. 

And when I got to the part where I was supposed to use just one strand of yarn, I would knit two rows, and then drop the strand I was using and pick up the strand that had been hanging unused and knit two rows with that strand.  That way, I didn't have to break off my yarn, or have long dangling loops at the sides of my project.

Does this make sense to anyone but me?

Lisa

[Kerry Berry]

Okay, here's how I did it, and everyone else can laugh and laugh if I have been a boneheaded knitter.

I see the pattern as

six rows of stockinette, with yarn doubled on small needles
switch to larger needles
one row of stockinette (knit)
four rows of lace
one row of stockinette (purl)
switch back to smaller needles

I don't think that the designer intends to have any regularly scheduled increases or decreases in the twelve row pattern.  She'll tell you when you need to increase or decrease when you get to those parts.

I was thinking this pattern over (it's my Knitting Olympics project), and I was having the same lace decrease issue.

I don't have the pattern with me, and I won't be able to check until Sunday, but I think row 3 of the lace has 2 sts decreased.  It has a K2tog at the beginning and end of the row without corresponding increases, IIRC. 

Can anyone vouch for this?  And what can we do to keep the lace pattern correct without decreasing every 3rd row of the lace pattern?

[lisascenic]

When I saw this odd pattern issue, I scoured the internet for listings of errors on this pattern.  What I ended up doing was following the stitch pattern for rows four and five on all four lace rows.

It seems to me that if you knit as directed, the sweater would end up as a giant triangle, with the pointy end being the top.

Maybe someone could contact the bloggesses (that's my new word -- female for bloggers) and ask them how they dealt with it.  My method worked for me.  Created a lovely lace.  But is it "correct?"  I dunno.

Lisa
home sick today.
no energy for knitting right now.
bla

[jessie-in-stitches]

wow, thanks for getting back to me on this crazy pattern! I was soooooo frustrated.I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees issues with it.

And I think your suggestions are great... using rows 4&5 as the basic lace stitch, and also switching the single yarns halfway through the lace pattern to have two small hanging loops instead of one big one.

So after seeing your comments, lisascenic and KerryBerry, I just spent SEVERAL hours trying to figure this thing out...... and I think I was successful. Just to prove how crazy I am, I posted a pdf with a chart of this section of the pattern... see my web site: http://www.jessie-in-stitches.com/AimeeAddendum.pdf

Now all I have to do is knit it!!!!!

[lisascenic]

Not so very crazy...  I drew it out on graph paper, so better understand.  I paint and draw for a living, so I'm more likely to figure things out with a pencil than a computer.

[lisascenic]

How are the Aimees progressing?  I'm hoping that y'all are more on-track than I am.

The Tuesday before last, my partner fell off a ladder at work, broke a vertebra, and suffered a spinal chord injury.  As you can imagine, I've had too much else on my mind to do any knitting.  In fact the two days after the accident, I sat in his hospital room knitting and ripping out the same four rows of a project that under other circumstances would have been easy for me.  I just couldn't wrap my brain around *anything* that day.

My sweetie is slowly recovering.  I actually started a blog, which I never had done before.  Don't laugh at the lack of formatting.  I'm too freakin' tired to get fancy with it.

http://howsrobb.blogspot.com/

Lisa

[Kerry Berry]

I finished the back of my Aimee:



Random thoughts:

I'm using Misti Alpaca Lace.  It's so soft and it smells wonderful.  So far I like it with this pattern.  There's far less haze, which means my lace sections are more cobwebby, which makes it a bit more goth.  And preppy goth is always good. 

The color is a little darker in real life, and it alternates between having brown, purple, and red undertones.

My underarm sections don't look as wing-like as I had feared.  Look at that waist, though--I might need to borrow a corset from work.

I'm not doing the bow in the front section, because I think it's too big and, frankly, it looks silly. 

This pattern is great TV knitting--it barely requires any attention.

You can find gratuitous progress photos at my blog (linked in sig).

[lisascenic]

Okay, I'll ask.  Where do you work that you can borrow a corset?

[Kerry Berry]

I work (seasonal hours) at a 19th century living history museum.  I do daycamps, mostly, but I've given my share of tours.

[lisascenic]

I wonder if anyone is still working on Aimee? 

Five weeks ago, my life was turned upside down when my partner suffered a spinal chord injury.  He's just come home from the hospital, but is in *very* fragile condition.  I'm taking care of everything, and as you may imagine, I haven't gotten any knitting done.

But I would love to get my vicarious thrills and see the work everyone else has been doing!

Lisa