Sunday, March 30, 2008

VK Lace Shrug Errata: Writing the Wrong



My apologies go out to irritated readers of Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer '08 who wanted to make this Lace Shrug. Sorry for the inconvenience. Just as W said about the Iraq war, "mistakes were made"... on my pattern. Use the instructions for assembley from VK, but go to VK's website for pattern corrections:


http://vogueknitting.com/?q=node/456

I met with Lisa B. from VK to go over some errata on my shrug pattern. We compared her notes to my Excel files. The sleeves and the cuff start off OK, then towards the end of the pattern they spiral downwards into mechanical error. Oddly enough my stitch count was still correct, regardless of how off the pattern was — mystery. I told her I'd go back to my written notes and compare them to my Excel files.



I went through the pattern line for line and made the shrug using Lang "Silk Dream" (5 balls @ 90 mt) starting with the sleeves. From what I could tell, my notes were correct. But as I typed in a correction to R72 in my MS Excel file, the "auto write" filled in the cell with text from a previous line! When I keyed a correction on another line, the same thing happened again. I found the culprit — Bill Gates is ruining my pattern! I found "Enable AutoComplete" in my prefs and turned it off. FINALLY! I can go back to making my own horrible typos with gusto. So I went back to my pattern to make corrections counting each stitch and row as I wrote into my file.



As you can see from my photos, the corrected pattern works. All things check out on the sleeves, the cuffs and the back panel. This pattern was written as a small/medium size using Tili Thomas "Rock Star", which is a medium weight silk yarn. Using Lang's "Silk Dream", it turned out to be a small/petite/eat-something-you-skinny-girl size. This is due to it's 50 merino/50 silk content. I haven't written this pattern for other sizes, but I have plans.

This rust colored shrug is currently hanging in Stitch Therapy's storefront window.

8 comments:

hamchat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Awww.....that's ok. You should see what happened to Dick Cheney's poncho. At least he had an exit strategy.

Unknown said...

Now he wears a sombrero of shame.

Twisted Stitches said...

Thanks for the corrections. My mind very often wanders when I attempt lace patterns, but I was starting to think it had gone off-planet somewhere around row 48....

Why on earth did VK tag a Women's small as one size fits all? I would really like to make this shrug for my sister's wedding, which is in October. Will the instructions for extended sizes be available anytime soon?

Unknown said...

Hey Twisted Stitches, I wrote this for one size, but I hope that VK expands that pattern for other sizes.

I had an aunt who was a talented seamstress, especially when it cmae to hand-me-downs. She epxanded the width of arms by creating a gusset under the sleeves. Tyr this.

Suggestions:
1) (Before sewing) knit a separate triangle shaped gusset "panel" under the arm to expand the width. Then sew all seams. I would use a stockinette stitch.

2) For the picot body band, pick up additional stitches from from the gusset edge in the same described manner (pick up 1, yo, repeat).

Jennifer Saylor said...

I am making this shrug for a friend's wedding. Any chance of instructions ever being available in chart form?

Anonymous said...

I only wish I could make something like this in the first place. My skill level isn't quite there yet, but someday soon I hope! In the meantime I'm back to buying dresses on http://www.gatheringguide.com/ec/bridal_shops_dresses.html.

needtwoknit said...

Tony,
Don't worry about the boo-boos. Sh-- happens! It really is a project for an experienced knitter and if such, one should be able figure it all out without the errata. I have made this twice. Both for my teenage daughter by her requests. Check them out at Ravelry, needtwoknit.
I have found that you can get some extra "stretch" if you slip the first stitch of each row VERY LOOSELY. Also, to make it in a larger size would require extra repeats on the shoulder area of the sleeves and increasing the stitches between the back decreases. Do the math and easy peazy! Thanks for such a fun, easy, beautiful pattern!