The off-piste is crippling me here.

For starters, OF COURSE I’m not using the right yarn. I got a big cone of this chenille for about 5p from ebay. The seller didn’t know the gauge, so I knitted a tension square, using the dimensions required for the pattern. Bang on. Excellent. Now how can I mess this up?

Mum suggested that I replace the puffy sleeves with a long rib, and I added another change of putting a long rib at the bottom of the bodice. Planning ahead in unusual detail for me, I’ve written down and planned how I’ll make those changes. Of course, not taking into account the fact that to do rib you need to go down 2 sizes of needle, otherwise it looks like string vest. I’d knitted getting on for 5 inches before I decided it was untenable. Frog #1.

Knitted sample rib 20 st long on 3.5mm needles. Not convinced. Frog sample, and start to knit pattern as written. Pattern consists of 7 rows st st, starting WS. Not concentrating (because I was also watching Girl With A Pearl Earring which has too many meaningful pauses & glances for complicated knitting patterns) I started RS, so had to do 8 rows st st or try cabling on the purl side. So, cabled on RS on row 9, purl row 10, cable on row 11, purl row 12. Realised I’d read the pattern wrong, and missed out half the cables on row 11. Much swearing. Major frog #2.

So, back to pattern amendments, and I’m now knitting rib on 3.5mm needles. It’s growing much more slowly than it did on 4mm needles, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.

Watch this space!