Beginner Education

Well, I found out why my Shedir didn't look cabled. It wasn't. Since I plunged into the project without rereading my references on cables and, more importantly, on reading knitting charts, I paid the price. This morning, I frogged all but the first nine rows. That is, I went all the way back to the ribbing to start all the cable stitches over.

For any new knitters out there, learn from my mistakes. When you read a charted knit pattern, and you are knitting the right side, you read from right to left. That is, the chart is printed to look the way the finished item will look. If you are knitting the backside, you reverse things. Since this is a hat knit in the round, all of the stitches are read right to left. Simple enough, but I am frustrated for not checking before starting. I also knitted a quickie sample with just three repeats (48 stitches cast on instead of 128) out of worsted to go through all the stitches. It made a cute doll hat. Actually, it is now being used for a sleeping bag for a very small, stuffed, squirrel toy.