Andromeda Cape - First Border One-Quarter Done

I've been working pretty steadily on the first border.  I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with knit on borders.  I do love the way they look, but they get so boring and I can't read while I knit them.  I have to have something on the television to keep me from going completely bonkers with boredom.  As I mentioned in my previous post I modified the border pattern by putting plain wrong side rows between all of the lace patterning rows.  It really opens up the pattern, and cuts the repeats in half.  It's hard to see without blocking.  The original has a string of tight little rosettes.  I like the way they look, but I also really like how this extended version is turning out.  I still wish that I could get a good picture of the colors of this yarn.  It is so reach.  The skein I'm working with right now is like velvet teal.

I discovered an interesting glitch in one of the charting programs that I use (Stitchmastery).  When I was putting the clues together for Once and Future King I noticed that the chart for clue 1 had been created as if it were knit in the round instead of flat.  I noticed this when I was increasing the font of the row and column numbers because all of the row numbers were on one side of the chart.  So I edited the chart diagram properties and changed it to be knit flat.  The row numbers re-adjusted themselves accordingly.  What did not change, however, was the key.  The original key had only the right side definitions, but when I made the change to knit flat the wrong side definitions did not appear.  The key did not change at all.  And I didn't notice that when I was increasing the font size of the key prior to exporting it as a jpeg.  I always find it interesting what the brain does and does not notice.

In the end I actually had to create a dummy chart with the symbols just so I could output a key with both the right side and wrong side instructions.  And then I forgot one of the stitches.  Sigh.  Needless to say confusion resulted.  I always feel terrible when I screw up like that.  Even though my test knitting and tech editing is not being done as a paid professional, I still take it very seriously and want to get everything just right.  I think my drive for perfection has been accentuated by my job as a safety engineer for the Navy.  In my job the details matter and so does getting it right.  The down side is that I often come home mentally exhausted, and so I miss things in my vocational activities.

I have also come to realize that the best way to tech edit a pattern is to test knit it.  Janine asked me to proof read an early draft of this pattern and I missed a number of things that I have found since I have been knitting the pattern.  It is interesting the different ways that the brain engages the material depending upon what you're doing with it.

Pattern:  Andromeda Shawl by Janine le Cras (converted into a cape)
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Verve in Magic Mirror
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)