Steekiness

This is what I did on New Year's Day. I sewed the steeks on My Philosopher's Wool Jacket and did the shoulder bind off. Now, I am debating about picking up the first band. I have 119 rows to pick up for a pre-steek length of 22.25 inches. There is some fussy stuff with the bottom 4 rows. They get get knit down rather from the side. The pattern repeat is 10 stitches. The gauge is 21 stitches to 4 inches. Which if I just pick up and go, after fudging one lonely stitch in, means I would need a gauge of 5.118 stitches to the inch instead of the 5.25 with size 9 needles. Going up one size is going to lose more than .132 stitches to an inch. So, I don't think it is worth it.

Now for the second check. 253 stitches divided by 45 inches is 5.62 stitches to an inch. This would result in 21.174 inches versus 22.25 inches. Leading to a a 1.076 inch difference. This might be noticeable and would call for 6 more stitches which doesn't allow an even repeat.

Of course, someone is probably muttering "she is crazy, she is looking at her in the round gauge. The band is knit back and forth." But I am weird and my around gauge is really, really close to my back and forth gauge. I think it is quite handy not fiddling with needles after dividing for the armholes.

A decision will be made sometime this month. No guarantee that it will be the final decision.