Pardon my whine. I usually enjoy a challenge, but this is beyond frustrating.
I joined this site 8+ months ago, looking for a long-lost pattern. I quickly discovered there are on-line pattern generators that give you formulas to make your own pattern, and even sites that take your measurement & gauge info, to make up a pattern for you. Sounded like a great idea at the time!
Figured out the cable sts I wanted to replicate. Went down the formula road with a traditional, knit in pieces plan, only to decide I shouldn’t be using wool for this particular project when I was more than 1/2 finished. Oh well, I have a pattern to make myself a tunic with the wool when dh’s sweater is done.
So I found a more appropriate wool blend in my stash, put my gauge & desired measurements into a top-down, raglan pattern generator on-line, and got to work. Proceeded slowly, as working my cables into the raglan increases often meant ripping back a few rows and trying something different. Weeks ago, I realized that if I kept increasing until I had the # of stitches called for around the yoke, then took off the sleeve stitches to work the body & sleeves separately, my arm holes would have been at or below waist level.:?? Fine, I stopped despite what the pattern said, took the sleeve sts to scrap yarn and worked the body. I have now spent more than a week trying to work a sleeve. Since my # of sts don’t match the pattern, I’m figuring out length and an appropriate rate of decrease on my own. Basically finished one, only to find out it’s too wide at the underarm to start with, even though I have fewer sts than told to have. The cable pattern involved makes an instant decrease complicated, I now need to frog what I tried to do in a couple hours last night.
At this point, I’m not sure my sweater will work, as I’ve already had to make substantial changes to the pattern otherwise it wouldn’t look right. [B]Has anybody used a sweater pattern generator successfully? If yes, did you use the formula method, or an on-line one that made the pattern based on your actual gauge and finished measurements?[/B] (couldn’t edit to add this question as a separate poll)