Sunday Sky

Attempting my first Pomatomus!

On Sunday I got up at 2 a.m. to put on a pot of coffee. The plan for the day was to wake up and get on the road for a two and a half hour drive to the lake where mom & dad were camping. It was to be their last day on Seboomook Lake and if we wanted to get there before they packed it up and left early, we needed to get started really early ourselves.

We were on the road by 3:30 a.m. and got there at 6. Just in time for a breakfast of bacon & eggs, which was already cooking.

This was to be a sit in the sun at the side of the lake day and knit. While the men went off fishing Mom and I would take a walk or two along the causeway and then sit and knit some more. She worked on a Grammie Sock and I decided to attempt the Pomatomus.

That's right. I have no clue how to read a knitting chart, but this pattern (written only in chart form) . . . This is the one I decide to try. I didn't want to take the library's copy of the Treasury of Knitting Patterns on the road so I loaded my totebag with 2 sets of different sized needles and a couple of sock patterns I've been wanting to try. (Printed out from Knitty.) I figured I would probably just start another pair of Old Shale socks because I can do them without the pattern and even traveling down bumpy roads. (5 pair completed since Memorial Day!) But I packed to cover several choices rather than decide ahead of time.

It was COLD. If you can believe it!

I cast on and did the 10 rows of Knit 1, Purl 1 rib wearing Dad's THICK flannel lined jacket. Sleeves rolled up so the needles would stop getting hung up on the cuffs. The wind was coming in off the lake and it was freezing until after 10 in the morning. By the time the winter coat came off I was ready to try to interpret a knitting chart. I wrote out each line of the chart in long form and painstakingly went from line to line.

Thankfully mom had a clue what to do when the very first sentence said to [YO, k2tog, (p1, k1 tbl) five times] WHICH PART happens five times? She concluded it was the (p1, k1 tbl) part that repeats 5 times. But she had no idea what tbl meant. Luckily I had consulted Knitty's definition section and knew it was THE BACK LOOP. Whatever that meant as I had never actually tried it. Until now.

Let me just say knitting in the back loop did not come easily at first! Some of my Yarn Overs may have been a little too long. But by the time the guys got back with a few fish and it was time to pack it in I had completed 2 inches of my first Pomatomus!

Mom nearly finished an entire Grammie Sock. Only about 2 inches left to do.

NOTE: Sunrise photo is over Moosehead Lake. Mt Kineo on the right, taken from the road on the way to King's High Landing. Which is where the traveling sock photo is gazing out over.

UPDATE: I'm stuck on my Pomatomus so have posted this in designer's comment section of her blog. If anyone happens by that can help me out, I would be ever so grateful!
I need a support group for my Pomatomus.

Row 12 of the first 1-22 repeat ends in a YO? How do you YO on the end of a row?

There's an * that says to move stitches around on the needles but I'm not sure when?

UPDATE 2: I'll be starting over now. The knit in the back loop instruction actually started with the very first stitch of the Ribbing. NOT 10 rows later as I did the cuff.

What CAN be fixed MUST be fixed. More UNknitting ahead.
I believe it's back to the drawing board with my Sunday creation by the lake. Most of it being wrong.

At least one of my faithful readers will now utter phrase, "You're such a... ?" in that tone of voice.