I ended up finishing one whole repeat of the chart and didn't have enough stitches left on either side to do another and keep adding an extra stitch each row. So I just started going every other row and every third row and I don't think it was too noticeable. We'll know for sure once I block the thing.
The only possible hitch is that the short row area seems to be pulling the border rows a bit tight, they're ruffling up a little at this point. Might work out with blocking or might just be an issue with this swatch. I was only working the short rows over 3 repeats of the chart and for the actual dress I'll be working it over something like 9 repeats of the pattern and working it on Size 13 needles. So I'm not going to waste time worrying over that. Hopefully I just didn't jinx myself there, otherwise I'm going to be going back to this email in a month or to and saying "I told you so!" to myself. I love to say I told you so, and it only loses a little bit of its charm when it's self directed.
All in all I'm amazed at how much planning I've done on this. I've knitted 4 swatches! And that's only counting the linen swatches. I knitted a whole bunch of other ones and there were a few that were frogged and redone so many times that even though only 1 swatch was produced, something like 4 swatches were knitted. If the saying is "Measure twice, cut once" I've always been more of a "Measure once, cut once" kind of a girl. Or, truth be told, a "Vaguely estimate the measurement and then say screw it and cut it anyway" kind of a girl. I won't lie - this has lead to a dress making related problem or two or five and to some of the incidents of crying and cat throwing that I eluded to in earlier entries.
So why was this time different? Well, part of it was that I kept repeating to myself over and over "It's your wedding dress stupid". That had something of an effect. But honestly it probably had more to do with making up my mind about the yarn and then not having the needles. If I'd had exactly what I wanted on February 11th I probably would have cast on that day. This whole taking my time thing has been good. Even though my basic concept has been the same pretty much from Day 1, I've given a lot of thought to the design and have made some tweaks. I've opened myself to the possibility of dyeing the finished product, although this idea scares the crap out of my mother. I promised her that I'd have the dress done more than a month before the wedding. She suggested that I try to have it done perhaps a little sooner than that. I'll certainly do my best. Fortunately when I told her my needle sizes, I think she was relieved. She was afraid I was knitting the whole thing on 1's! My eyes and my hands hurt just thinking about it...
Later: Would have posted this last night but the internet at home hated photos. Didn't have time before work this morning to check out the blocked swatch, so that's a little something to look forward to when I get home!
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