When Screwing Up a Stitch Pattern is for the Best - Wilderness

So, tell me. Have you ever knit the entire back of a sweater before realizing you were DOING IT WRONG?

This is Wilderness, a pattern by Martin Storey from his wonderful new Rowan booklet Pioneer (more on that below).

This is basically a ribbed sweater that extrudes the ribbing in bumps down the knit columns. I like to call them 'square bobbles'.  

Normally, bobbles are stitches you knit back and forth on a small amount of stitches to make a little ball. This involves increasing into 1 stitch a bunch of times and then decreasing back to one stitch. I love bobbles and they are often featured on my Knitspiration board on Pinterest.

I've made this Anthropolgie sweater, see it here.

These "square bobbles" are really just the same thing, except that you don't increase and decrease at the beginning and end. I suppose that officially they are called 'tucks', but I've decided that all my new stitches should rhyme with wobble. 😅

So now let's try and understand my mistake. As you can see, my bobbles aren't on the knit columns, but the purl columns!

Oops. Instead of pushing the little bobble to the right side while knitting, I let it pucker out while it was facing me on the wrong side. And yes, I did this for the WHOLE BACK and only noticed when I re-checked the photo when it was time to do the front!!

So, why was this a good thing, in the end?  Well, before casting-on the front, I decided to try out the real stitch.

Pros of the correct stitch:

• Smooth surface
• Not messy on the edges of the bobble

Cons of the correct stitch:

• Looks like melting wax
• Forces reverse stockinette seams instead of smooth stockinette seams
• KEY DECIDING ISSUE: Bobble protrudes much more than if it is in the purl column

I ran this comparison by my husband and he much preferred my purl bobbles. In fact, the stitch pattern is quite manly really, and both he AND my father said they wanted a sweater just like this!  

(As you may know, my man helps me regularly with my knitting decisions and photography. Well, not all the time.)

Just a note on the stitch. Whether or not you do the original stitch pattern or my own reversed version, there is an easier way to do it than described. Believe me, you want it to be easier... those bobble rows take foreeeeever to get through.

Pattern to the strip that will have the bobble:

With the left needle still in place, slip a short small-sized circular needle through the 5 stitches of the strip.

Let the needle hang (in front or in back, depending on what type of bobble you are doing) while you knit the strip back and forth.

Now, instead of guessing where the stitches "6 rows below" are, just slide you circular needle so the stitches are at the right end of the needle, and knit or purl those stitches together with the stitches on your main left needle.

Voilà!  A much faster bobble experience.

Here is the underside of the pattern, in case you are curious.

The original pattern uses Rowan Creative Focus Worsted, which is a 75% wool, 25% alpaca yarn that has quite a fuzzy halo.

I used smooth, marled madelinetosh DK for my sweater, giving it an entirely different texture that I liked a quite a lot.  Without the fuzziness, I decided it should be called the "Stegosaurus Stitch".

Other than the stitch modification, I did some complicated fiddling around with the sleeve.  First, I knit them top down so I could get a good fit.  I have skinny arms, so I ended up with 40 sts at the wrist instead of 47.

Second, I wanted to keep the bobbles away from the seam for neatness. 

(By the way, a friend of mine has informed me that the instructions on how to add bobbles as you increase the sleeve from the wrist are not clear.  My advice to you bottom-up sleeve knitters: as you increase, continue the k5, p5 pattern, and only add bobbles if there is an entire strip available plus one selvedge stitch.)

Third, I realized I'd have a weird Bobble Bald Spot if I didn't end up having a bobble centered across the seam!  (I tried it and frogged it, I'm sorry I didn't take pictures).  I suppose you could do a half bobble on each side of the flat sleeve, but I don't see how it would ever look right.  

The fix?  Just start knitting circular!  See?  A nice bobble across the seam.

Let's talk a little bit about this amazing new pattern book by Martin Storey, Pioneer.  It is probably my favorite book from this Rowan Autumn/Winter 2013 season.  I rate a book as really worth buying if there are 3 patterns I would seriously consider making.

I would make five out of 16!  (that could be a Dayana record)

Quilt

Almanac

Dwell

And my personal favorite at first glance in the book... Settler.

Fall photo shoots are always grand fun. I live in Mile End, Montréal.

The great grafitti backdrops under the St-Laurent bridge under the railroad tracks...

The gritty abandoned containers in railroad parking lots...

Alleys behind brightly painted houses and their shadows...

All the shadow pictures were done by me with my tripod.

If you think you can make it through some serious bobble rows, this sweater is totally worth making. I wear it all the time, and it just has this quirky interest you don't see in sweaters off the rack. It grabs the attention and somehow doesn't at the same time.

The only downside (upside?) has been that sometimes, when I'm sitting for a long time, I wonder if I'm on one of these! 😋

Update: I just received a note from Martin Storey on Facebook: "Beautiful Dayana.  Even better than the original...!  A happy accident.. All the very best.."  /totally starstruck, thanks Martin!!/

My Wilderness, Reversed on Ravelry