At first glance I thought I had a straightforward pattern, but now I’m hopelessly confused and just staring at it hoping for that ‘aha’ moment. I’m preparing to make Googly Eyed Gator from 60 Quick Baby Blankets book.
*Calls for 200 cast on, but only has 80 rows in #4 for a 38x42 blanket;
*Correction I found online says to ignore numbers on left side of chart;
*I can see the gator body is bobble stitch but pattern shows one single row of bobble in the body -
Im guessing I need to somehow incorporate the written pattern with the charts but I’m at a loss how to do that. To me, written row 53 and 55 don’t match the chart rows 53 and 55. Full disclosure: I’m not awesome at reading charts.
I hope these images are helpful
What a fantastic pattern!
I would imagine that the chart focuses on just the gator part of the blanket, having a full chart with heaps of plain garter stripes charted would be really cumbersome to follow and you don’t need a chart for those plain rows. You will need a stitch count to work before the chart begins, then a marker, then the chart work, then probably another marker to show the end of the charted sts and some more plain stripe sts to the end of the row.
The bobble instruction is probably just given once and then each time it is marked on the chart you work those sts a given. You could copy the bobble instruction out onto a sticky note so you can stick it directly on the chart for easy reference.
There is likely some instruction near the beginning which explains how to get started. Can you look back at the beginning, perhaps row 1, or perhaps earlier than row 1, some pattern notes. When you find those it should make more sense but if not just let us know the few lines.
Getting started is often the hardest part but you’ll be fine when you get going.
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The written instructions don’t match up to the chart (rows 53 and 55 are clearly different from 57 in regard to yarn A) but the chart seems clear. Go with the chart as you want to end up with that visual image.
The same is true for the bobbles. Creations idea of a sticky for the bobble instructions will help. Go with the chart since it seems more true to the pattern figure that you want.
There are lots of complaints about the pattern on Ravelry so it’s worth reading them. The charts and the written instructions for the row numbers apparantly don’t align. Who would expect that? Search the projects for errata and read the project knitter’s comments. Very helpful.
I see the errata for the pattern so yes, ignore then numbers on the left side of the chart.
#27 Googly-Eyed Gator, pages 82-83
Updated: 16Jun2017
Charts A and B
Omit numbers along left side of each chart. See Note 3 on how to work charts.
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The Ravelry errata was helpful! I think I’ll be passing on this project for now. I’m not adept enough at charts as it is so figuring out where/when to use the chart within the written pattern as I go feels like I’ll be doing more frogging than knitting. I had started writing out the pattern and I’ve written out charts before so I understand them enough to do that much (I’ve even chatted my own design) but this partial written partial chart just isn’t clicking with me.
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Maybe a pattern to put aside for awhile. It sounds like you’re making progress teaching yourself charts which is all good. There’ll be time to get back to this one if you want once you have more experience with better written patterns and charts.
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My favorite comment is “As per usual, the Cascade Quick Baby Blankets patterns need editing…” Sounds like Cascade needs to hire some tech editors!
Apparently, every row of the chart is a garter ridge…so TWO rows, not one. Also, almost everyone commented that the bobbles as written leave gaps for tiny fingers to catch in, so they made different bobbles.
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