I'm still here

Hi,

I just realised that it's been almost 2 months since my last post. I guess I'm not a committed blogger...there are too many things in my life away from the computer, and when I do have an hour or two, I prefer to spend it either knitting or reading.

I do have a story to share though...

I'm working on Meg Swansen's Puzzle Pillow blanket for my new baby. Here's how the blanket looks as of this morning. Last night I was just at the end of the first oatmeal triangle, but hadn't continued it to start the parallelogram part of the oatmeal color.


Here's how I got to this point... (see below for the arrows)

I cast on 54 stitches where the pink arrow is (A-B) side.

Then knit back 53, turn, knit back, leaving one stitch on the needle at the A-C diagonal.
Knit 52, turn, knit back
Knit 51, turn, knit back,
etc.. until you're at C with 2 stitches on the needle.

You do some funky slip/knit stuff and then start on the CC (oatmeal). Starting on the D-C side, you knit 2 towards the diagonal, turn, knit back. Then knit 3, turn, knit back etc.. picking up one stitch on the diagonal each time.

The last line of the pattern at this point says "knit 54, turn, knit back. You are now at A". Well, I was was at D at that point and very perplexed. I mean...if I"m starting at D-C, knitting towards the A-C diagonal and being told to knit back afterwards, I should logically be at D, not A. Hrm..

Let me google to see if there are any errata. None... Let me check Ravelry...None posted. Check Schoolhouse press for corrections. None...

The legendary Meg Swansen can't be wrong. No way no how.



Since it was kind of late, I decided to email Jennifer to ask her to bring her copy of the pattern to work the next day so that we could try to work it out over MSN/email.

The next morning, I explained my problem. She agreed that it didn't make sense, but tried to see if maybe I/we were interpreting the pattern wrong. We didn't think we were.

I said that maybe I should email school house press to see if they know of this issue..or maybe when there were less boss-like people around, I would call. Jennifer decided that now was a good time to call, and was it OK with me if she called Schoolhouse on my behalf.

Here's where it starts to get spooky...

Jennifer calls Schoolhouse press, says that she's having a problem with a pattern, says it's the puzzle pillow blanket and is transferred to another department. The lady answers the phone "Schoolhouse Press, this is Meg".

this. is. Meg.

I had heard that Meg Swansen answers the phones once in a while, and it happened to Jennifer. how cool is that?!?!

If it were me, I would have fainted, but from what Jenn tells me, she did remain mostly calm and proceeded to explain the dilemma described above. At one point, Meg just stopped and said "uh, yes, you're right" (or something to that effect -- Jennifer will be posting her version later today -- and she did see that you should be at the D side at that point. )

She said that there was an indeed a problem in the pattern, but then she says "You know what the worst part is? Just a few days ago, we got a delivery of 20,000 copies of the pattern, which all have the error.".

What freaked me out (aside from the fact that Jennifer talked to Meg) was that after 13 years in publication, no one had found the error in the pattern. How does that happen?

Anyways, Meg asked Jennifer for our names, so that we could get credit on the Schoolhouse Press site when they posted the correction. She gave our first names only.

....

....

An hour or two goes by, we're trying to figure out how to actually correct the pattern -- either adding an extra row or removing one row -- so I can keep going. Jennifer was going to write an email to schoolhouse asking them to send us the correction (in case it takes a while to be posted).

The phone rings at Jennifer's work, and it's Meg Swansen calling her back. I think that she must have stopped breathing for a moment or two. Meg was calling to let her/us know how to correct the pattern (we were right, remove a row) so that we would be able to continue knitting the blanket.

I'm so totally and unbelievably amazed by the service from Schoolhouse Press. I would totally recommend them to anyone.

Go on over to Jennifer's site to see her version of the story.

Hopefully I'll post again sooner than two months from now. I do have pictures of some finished socks that I might be convinced to post. Maybe...