Pirate - oh dear!

Thank you everyone so much for your comments on the Irish Hiking Scarf :-) I am keeping my fingers crossed that my dad likes it! It certainly does feel as good as it looks, it's hard to describe the "hand" of this yarn when knitted up. Very soft, excellent drape but with a great structure (I guess the rib helps with that too).

I have to admit that poor Pirate was frogged tonight. It almost hit the pond last night but I decided to persevere. However, it seems the combination of trying to keep the pattern "as set" while decreasing has ultimately defeated me! Working out where to start the row, I could do, but I seemed to "lose" a stitch on some rows, and this last row was the final straw as the pattern went wrong part way through. I've knitted lace e.g. Branching Out, but not with decreases either side before, and I have he sneaky feeling this pattern isn't the greatest for clarity. I don't make a habit of losing stitches either and if I had a dodgy stitch count on Branching Out I could work out what had gone wrong and fix it (and that's a much more complex lace pattern than this top).

In the end I figured I was really going to struggle keeping the pattern correct on this and frankly it was becoming demoralising! It bothers me that I can't figure out why it kept going so wrong. However I'm still determined to make a top to wear on holiday, so am off to look for either a Rowan Handknit Cotton pattern (same tension) or something else that I can adapt. The DB cotton is lovely yarn with a very soft feel to it so hopeflly I can come up with something else for it.

Thanks Hazel for the info. about the Rowan Club pattern books, I'll be ordering no. 39 from somewhere then as I've decided to make Jewel, the cardigan in Calmer. No lace involved LOL - but either stranding or intarsia or something along those lines. There may be further cries of anguish when I start that ;-)

EDIT - I've found the sort of thing I was looking for - Tulip. Even though I just had to look up how to knit reverse stockinette in the round (purl every row), obviously my brain was adversely affected by the heat this weekend as I'm sure I knew that ....