I posted on Monday about how I was frantically knitting on Andrea Mowry’s The Shift Cowl. Well, my progress came to a screeching halt when I got to the end of a row and my stitch count was off. The Shift starts with a few stitches and increases by twos every few rows. I had an odd number of stitches. Not good. I counted again- still odd. So I tinked back a row, then two. Still off. Then I got annoyed and ripped back three or four rows just to be sure. I got an even number of stitches on the needles, but then I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where I was in the pattern. The row that matched my stitch count didn’t match the stitches I had done. Maybe I knit the wrong row? Ugh.
The pattern is very clear and not at all confusing, but the rows repeat a lot. As in “knit rows 1-8 two times, then knit rows 1-4 four times.” If I were organized, and remembered to check my stitch count, everything would be fine. If only. All of which meant that I had to rip back to the end of a section and start again. A new cup of coffee and some choice swear words later, I was back on track.
In order to avoid a repeat of this exercise in futility, I have started writing out each section and marking off my rows as I go, double checking my stitch count along the way.
It’s a little bit uptight for me, but at least I know where I am. Do you have any tried and true methods to keep track of your progress?
A Yarn Tail 