Sirdal Cuff

The Sirdal Cuff.

I stayed up late trying to figure out the flap on the cuff. I tossed and turned when I went to bed thinking about it. I thought about it in the shower the next morning and, I lay on the floor of the den contemplating with it under my nose. The cuff stumped me for the better part of a morning and then I decided to knit intuitively instead of trying to interpret the Dale pattern.

Forging ahead, I completed the cuff and moved on to the sleeve. I spent the afternoon charting out the pattern on graph paper so I would know where to do the increases, keeping in pattern. The evening was spent watching a movie as I confidently increased my way up the sleeve.

The next morning I remembered what my Norwegian guru had told me about checking the stitch gauge on the sleeve so you wouldn't have to rip out 300 stitches on the body when your gauge was off. When he told me this I assured him my gauge swatch was spot-on and I did not anticipate problems. Still......his words lurked in my mind. Remembering Terri's Sirdal gauge adventure, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

I pulled out my trusty gauge ruler. What's this?? 7 sts to the inch instead of 6 sts? How can this be? I pulled out a different gauge ruler and it said the same. My cute little Sheep gauge confirmed the bad news.

Rip-it. Rip-it. Rip-it. See my frog stitch marker in the picture? Me? I'm in the frog pond this afternoon. I even had to go to the LYS and buy larger needles!

I learned a lesson. The Norwegian guru DOES know what he is talking about AND I will always start with sleeves from here on out. I'm trying not to think about the three sweater bodies that are currently in time out....bodies, not sleeves.