Projects
Waffle Pullover: What Color Is Your Lifeline?
Dear fellow wanderers in the quest to bang out a sweater (in particular the Waffle Pullover),
Ahhhh, it’s time for the cold plunge of knitting!
That bracing moment when you conclude—after arguing with yourself, the Devil, and your knitting—that it’s time for a good, old-fashioned lifeline.
You know the feeling. It’s when you have discovered that your stitch count is flawed in a way that will not get better. That counting it eight times continues to deliver the same extremely wrong numbers. That no matter how you try, it’s still wrong.
I did do the short rows correctly the first time, only because I took heed of fellow Bang Outers and our fearless leader Lorilee Beltman who waved red flags like crazy to Pay Attention.
I paid! I paid! I have never before paid such word-by-word attention to a set of 8 short rows.
Triumph!
Followed by Triumph’s roommate, Hubris.
I immediately galloped into the yoke, where the increases seemed pretty much like any top-down sweater I’ve made.
I was using the stitch count cheat sheet that Spkb11 posted in the Society Lounge. I was crossing off rounds like a professional. I was back to Season 3 of Poldark, for pity’s sake. I may have had a Belvita whilst mid row.
Until I discovered the stitch counts were all wrong.
You can’t knit your way out of a situation like that.
So—once I shut down Poldark, ate that fourth Belvita—I tried to reframe this situation as something other than I Have To Redo Two Days Of Knitting.
I went with:
I GET To Redo Two Days Of Knitting.
I get to even pick which color yarn to use for my lifeline! LUCKY ME!
That was all a lie. I honestly loathed the whole thing and went with a sour apple Noro.
I threaded it on a tapestry needle, identified Row 6 of the mosaic pattern as an all-purl row with no increases, which would make for the cleanest pickup of the 4,930,393 stitches.
See the lifeline in there? I ripped back 16 rounds to the sour apple Noro lifeline, maybe 30 minutes start to finish to install the lifeline and undo the rounds. No big deal.
Dread is such a pointless feeling, right? Maybe the lesson for me is that when Dread shows up—never far from her friend Hubris—it’s best to call up Fortitude right away. Wishy thinking has never fixed much of anything for me.
And in my mind at all times was MDK Rule No. 17: No project is too ambitious if you crave the result enough.
I crave! I crave! Back at it with my new friend, Humility.
Wishing everybody the smoothest week ever when banging out your Waffles. May Peace and her friend Joy come hang out with you!
Love,
Ann
Isn’t this the sweater where Kay’s increases were dodgy back when the pattern was published? I’m about to embark on this journey and have been thoroughly warned. Maybe a quiet room with no distractions is inorder.
My suggestion before embarking on the short rows would be to re-write the instructions so you have each row on a separate line — much easier to read and mark off in this format. Ask me how I know.
To clarify: If you have a digital version of the pattern copy and paste the text into a Word document and enlarge it!
Great words!! So much discussion has happened concerning the Waffle, it’s amazing that there is still advice and observations to savor and inspire!
One takeaway from this project is an enhanced appreciation of Jane. I’ve worked with Jane before -made the Snipscarf and a couple of Sophies…but it wasn’t until Waffle that I really fell in love with its hidden qualities. I have ripped out so many times and, yet, it stands up to my mistakes every time! I can almost feel the fibers get ready for the rollback after they hear me counting out loud for the fifth time!!!! It’s a beautiful forgiving yarn! ….Love the marked up field guide! Mine looks like a well-loved recipe in one of my cookbooks!! But instead of butter and chocolate stains, it has tears, coffee and wine ( the glass of wine was an experiment that didn’t work…hence all the counting!) stains….and Belvita crumbs!
The lesson for me would be NO knitting with Aiden Turner. The cliffs,the horses , the angst. You’re a braver woman than me.
And I was going to ask, the newer Poldark or the old? Aiden Turner is good, but no one will replace Robin Ellis for me….
Good for you to correctly ID the mistake and the right fix. Onward!
‘redo 2 days of knitting’ … I get that.
Some days all goes well but on others my concentration wains, or interruptions disturb my rhythm. I’m willing to leave a M1L where it should be a M1R, but a slipped yarn in back that becomes a yarn in front, or a dropped stitch must be fixed. Consistent checking is the key.
An
Thank you for sharing your challenges with us! I also love your use of single word friends that can be so familiar especially in a complicated project (and sometimes an “easy” one when Hulu arrives.)
Let’s hear it for Peace and Joy!
Ugh. I’m still swatching (I got derailed by having to knit 2 “Melt the ICE” hats) and I’m becoming more and more concerned about making this sweater with all the comments!
You have NO idea how good you made me feel. I too have frogged many many times. Even confident enough to pull out my end of short rows lifeline ‘I DIDNT NEED IT ANY MORE’. WRONG!!! I am now on the yoke shaping for the 2nd time will definitely insert another lifeline. I love the look of this sweater and I want it so badly I will persevere but it is difficult to follow this pattern sometimes.
All well,” I knit because I like to, not because I have to”. That’s my knitting mantra.
Happy day and thanks again for making me feel less stupid
Ann—I love your spunky prose!
May I offer cousins Empathy and Sympathy. Most of us have been there, but even if we haven’t, we feel for you!
… I admire your attitude to the situation as this would’ve made me absolutely irate, and I’d have had to knit something else for a bit until I calmed down! Also, an excellent reminder about how useful lifelines are! I have also buggered up my short rows BUT that is an issue for Future Ash, because we don’t look back, dahling, it distracts from the now.
I have been an MDK Society Member since it was first offered in late 2024, if memory serves (a big “if”!). It was not until prompted by Ann’s column this morning that I actually “stepped” into The MDK Society Lounge. What a treasure trove! I have not delved fully because I wanted to post my discovery as soon as I uncovered its wonders – all sorts of discussions, revelations and not just dealing with The Waffle. I will admit to not joining active banging as I have time crunch projects on my needles (Spring Break Yarn Bombing anyone!?!?), but I have my Jane caked (Pothos/Pathos and Cameo, if people are keeping track) and have been following along…at a safe distance, joining the class lessons and Ann and Kay’s columns, but the discovery of the wisdom, empathy and encouragement of The Lounge has me eager to be done with miles of mindless banners and test my mettle!
I too had to unbang a goodly portion of my waffle. I discovered that many rows back one row in the front (of course) section had shifted over a stitch. I thought several times that something looked funny but inspected my work and wrongly concluded nothing had gone astray. Since mine is a two color version I just couldn’t live with it, so back it went although I did manage to save the short row section. Bonus was I got to clean up the raglan increases around the beginning of round. Much happier now
I ripped back the yoke twice because I decided to free solo the thing . I had to step back and get the concept for that section (every other set of increase rows is only on the front/back), now I’m past the sleeve separation and coasting. But the knitting hubris is so real!!!!
Oh, I love the advice, discussions, wonderful writing and funny stories around this challenging project! I, too, came up with the wrong number of stitches, but I fudged by nudging stitches to one or t’other side of the stitch marker along the raglan seams and my friends (the ones who distracted me in the first place) assure me “no one will notice.” I think of another friend who always claimed that “mistakes tell you it’s hand-knitted!” Cheers to our cheerleader through it all, Perseverance!
I had the right number of stitches but somehow I moved the columns over 1 and had to rip too. And on the longest rows!!!
I added a lifeline when I finished the ribbing in the first step. Some bright blue fingering shows up great against my main color Clay. After tinking back to BOR for the back neck nothing looked right so I ripped back to the start. Did multiple cast ons. I’m not very good at reading my knitting; blame it on multiple eye surgeries. But I can untangle a skein of yarn for winding!
Such words of wisdom!
Unfortunately I have been unable to join this KAL. But congrats to all of you who are knitting away on this delightful adventure