Un-Seam-ly

I've run into a few bumps while seaming the vest. First is that, despite knitting the exact same number of pattern repeats up to the armholes on both front and back pieces, and despite careful blocking with a ruler (sheesh!), the selvedges are not the same length. sigh.... I'm trying to ignore what this might say about my row gauge. Seems like after about twenty years of knitting, I ought to be more consistent than that.

That was glitch number one. Glitch two? Somehow I never notice this before, but the selvedge stitches are stockinette on one piece and reverse stockinette on the other. This means the trusty mattress stitch won't quite work. After consulting the Montse Stanley book and fretting for far too long, I decided on a version of a running stitch with backstitches every two to three inches. (I'm sure Montse would not approve.)

The results are decent but not flawless. I'm sure if you look closely, you'll be able to identify the side seam here. Shoot, you probably won't even have to look closely. But even though this vest is a gift, I've decided we can all live with the result. We have no choice, really. The way the pattern is designed, the chart repeat, if followed faithfully according to instructions, isn't perfectly centered but has an extra two-stitch channel of reverse stockinette on the left border of each repeat. If I had thought the pattern through before knitting it, I could have either added or subtracted two stitches to compensate for this, and my seams would be neater. Too late for that now.

And, because glitches always come in threes, glitch number three, the granddaddy of them all, comes in at the shoulder seam. I can't show you this now because blogger only lets me publish three pictures per post, but I'll get up a picture of the shoulder seams next time.

I've just described to you how the pattern has an extra two stitches on the left of each chart repeat. If you think about it -- if I had thought about it for ten seconds before casting on -- you'll quickly realize that this means the pieces are patterned off-center, meaning the patterns can't match at the shoulder seams. They just can't. I've jacked around with these seams for around three hours tonight, and I'm giving up. I can get them to the point where they don't look like a train wreck, but I can't get them to match, and that's that.

Oh, well. Next up, ribbed armbands. But not tonight. Tonight, I need the comfort of a plain sock, around and around, nothing but knit-knit-knit for miles.

Tomorrow, The Fold. :D