Yarns firmly under control, I was whizzing along with Flag and getting through the rows on the chart very quickly – too quickly – alarmingly quickly…..

Bugger!

I had managed to misread this very large, clear instruction at the top of the chart (I’m doing size “S”)…

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I read one square as “4 stitches and 4 rows” not “4 stitches and 8 rows” (4 garters).  I really am getting to be a very silly, careless knitter who would have ended up with a rather stunted garment 🙁

It wasn’t entirely a bad thing though – I wasn’t happy with that “quick”  Thumb cast on – it looked sloppy.

And I hadn’t quite mastered the weaving in of yarn when the colour travels to right (all described on Helen’s tutorials) and I had left too long floats 🙁

See what I mean??

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It did give me a sneak preview of how it was turning out though 🙂

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Nothing for it but to treat it as a learning experience and start again….

Properly… with a neat “long tail cast on”…

paying attention to the pattern instructions!

A much better cast on edge this time…

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And I’m getting those floats nicely under control – in fact the wrong side is looking pretty neat and tidy now…

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I’m really glad I started again – It’s all much improved 😀

I had one little hiccup with my yarn box – I had only made 12 slots for yarn balls and after a few rows I needs number 13.

I thought I had found a practical and innovative solution to my “one more ball” problem. Ben, of course, expressed incredulous amusement  -in the form of pointing and laughing! Hurumpf… Surely a loo roll centre isn’t  that funny ? 🙄

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So you must be wondering how far I’ve got?

I could tease you and say I’ve just done the provisional stitches that mark where the arm holes go at the top of the horizontal red srtipe…

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But really this is the picture you’re waiting to see – slipped onto a spare circular for the photo shoot…

..Half way there!

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