Boléro Anastase - progress report

Here is the completed and blocked back of the Boléro Anastase:

Detail of edging

detail of detail, with descriptions!

this is either a detailed rendering of the Black Lagoon,
or the right front side, unblocked, un-edged.

I had to make some modifications because the smallest size is the closest to my size... I'm not a starving supermodel, but I did miss out on the amply-bosomed genetic lottery, so an XS would have been nice.

NOTES:

Knitpicks "Panache" sheds like mad. It's on the clothes I wore while knitting, on the white towel I used for blocking, and I keep finding little bits of black fluff floating around the house. Soooo do not like this.

On the right front, knitted to the smallest size, the decreases given in the pattern DO NOT work... you run out of room for the cable along the side, so I had to do some creative dec/inc juggling to save the cable and still allow for a decently-shaped armscye. I also did not do all the dec called for around the neck--just sort of knitted it to where it looked about right.

Which makes me wonder--don't they have people test-knit these things? I know there are professional test-knitters (BEST.JOB.EVAR.), but do they knit in all the sizes? Do they have anyone double-check the numbers, just to make sure that, oh, by the way, if you knit this in the smallest size, by row 27 you don't end up with negative stitches?

Imagine, all those negative stitches (or are they inverse stitches? stitches^-1? let's stick with negative for the sake of argument)--probably popping up in an alternate universe, right in front of negative-you (you^-1?). Naturally, this freaks negative-you out to all of a sudden see stitches appear out of nowhere. So negative-you spits out another pill, regurgitates some whisky and hopes for the best. Over time negative-you becomes increasingly sober, lucid and distraught--all because some yarn company didn't bother to work out the maths of its stitches. You oughtn't do that to your negative-you.

The lesson here: don't trust the pattern. Trust yourself and your knitting, and you, your knitting, and your negative-you will all be well.


UPDATE: I found the Black Lagoon map!