I have bad news and good news. The good news is that I cast on my own Esmerelda a week ago and have caught what I believe to be all the mistakes in the pattern so far, and from now on, I’ll be knitting and designing the instructional steps before I release the new instructions, so Parts 4 through the end should be error-free. I also have Part 4, the left sleeve, for you today. The bad news is that when I finished knitting Part 3, I tried on my shrug and the armholes seemed a bit tight. I have skinny little arms, and I needed help to get the shrug off, so I measured and calculated, and decided that I needed to rip back the 3.5″ of the back piece that I had knit so that I could cast on more stitches for the underarms. I had followed a simple top-down raglan recipe that called for casting on 1″ of stitches for the underarms for all sizes, and that leaves the armholes undersized in all sizes. I’ve done all the calculations so that the armholes come out to the proper sizes, and the corrected instructions are at this link. I’ve also made minor corrections to the instructions for Parts 1 and 2. The total number of rows worked was off on Part 1, and Part 2 was missing a purl row (WS) before starting the cable pattern (RS).
And now on to Part 4!
NEW ABBREVIATION:
DPNs: Double-pointed needles
I measured my cable pattern gauge, and got one pattern repeat, 16 sts by 24 rows = 2″ unstretched, 3″ lightly stretched wide, by 3 3/4″ long.
Centered Cables (worked in the rnd over 16 sts, as on sleeves):
Rnd 1 (RS): K1, p2, (k2, p2) 3 times, k1.
Rnd 2 (RS): K1, p2, (k2, p2) 3 times, k1.
Rnd 3: T8B rib, T8F rib.
Rnd 4: As 2nd rnd.
5th to 14th rnds: Rep 1st and 2nd rnds 5 times.
Rnd 15: T8F rib, T8B rib.
Rnd 16: As 2nd rnd.
17th to 24th rnds: Rep 1st and 2nd rnds 4 times.
Left Sleeve
Place 20 (28, 27, 36, 34, 43, 42) held sts onto DPNs. Knit 8 (4, 5, 17, 18, 14, 15) sts in stockinette stitch. Place mkr, work Centered Cables pattern once, place mkr. Work remaining sts on holder in stockinette stitch. Pick up and knit 31 (28, 34, 33, 40, 38, 44) sts. Rearrange 51 (56, 61, 69, 74, 81, 86) sts evenly onto DPNs.
Rnd 1: Work in pattern as established.
Rnd 2: K until 2 sts before mkr, k2tog, sl mkr, work Centered Cables pattern, M1L, sl mkr, k to end of rnd.
Work Rnd 1 and Rnd 2 alternately. Decrease 2 sts every 12th (10th, 10th, 8th, 8th, 7th, 6th) rnd 7 (10, 9, 13, 13, 16, 19) times. Sizes 30 (38, 42, 50): Decrease 1 st every 12th (10th, 8th, 7th) rnd once. 36 (36, 42, 42, 48, 48, 48) sts.
Decrease Rnd: K until 4 sts before mkr, k2tog, work in patt until 2nd mkr, sl mkr, M1L if on Rnd 2, ssk, k to end of rnd.
All Sizes: Work in pattern until sleeve measures 17.25 (17.5, 17.75, 18.25, 19.25, 19.75, 20.25)” / 44 (44.5, 45, 46.5, 49, 50, 51.5) cm, or 1″ / 2.5 cm less than desired length, rearranging sts on DPNs as necessary.
Hopefully I’ll have a photo of my Esmerelda to share with you soon! (And all those other photos I promised to share!)