'Isobel' Gilet by Ruth Cross

I started this project from the Susan Cropper's book 'Pretty Knits' knowing that it would be a difficult project. I decided that it would be my 'long term' exercise in increasing my skill by knitting in the round.

There are over 200 stitches to be cast on and the pattern divides up into sections of patterns. So far, so good. None of the knitting stitches are new to me so but I wasn't quite sure why it was necessary to knit into the back of stitches so I haven't bothered with that and it has made no difference to the finished look. However, what has been my nemesis is the abandonment of written instructions after row 32 and an instruction to read through the do this whilst doing that section of the pattern writing. The pattern is meant to repeat from row 9 to 32 but it clearly does not and it needs sheer genius to work out how the shaping and cable shifting is working. Obviously not me then.

My gripe with this sort of thing is that I have spent a lot of money on the wool for this project and read through the instructions to begin with but have only found the actual knitting stage to show up what a badly written pattern, in my opinion, this is. I want my knitting to be challenging at times but not to the point where it is sheer hell. Why on earth could they not use a graph or just give you every row as they did for row 1 - 32 - so it would take up some extra pages but have I not paid enough for the book for it to be user friendly?

So far on Ravelry I have not found anyone else knitting this and so I have to continue alone. This design by Ruth Cross is beautiful but deserves a better pattern writing.