Help with chart-reading?

[jackandahat]

I suspect this is going to be one of those where the answer is so obvious I'll kick myself, but I've looked and looked and I can't work it out.

I'm trying to learn to read charts, and I want to make this jumper. So I'm writing out the charts and swatching and I've done just fine up until I hit row 15 or chart 3.

There's 2 symbol there I can't understand. One looks like C3FP but all-white, instead of white with a grey box. C3F is all-white, but doesn't have the extra little lines. The other, likewise, but C3BP/C3B.

I've asked elsewhere and been told "Just look at the key", but I don't see it on the key - so I'm feeling pretty stupid here, can anyone help?

Edit: It's been suggested that the designer just copied rows 1-14 and turned them all white, rather than editing the symbols, and that I should just C3F/C3B, no purling. Which sounds sensible to me - does this seem plausible?

Comments

[sedge]

Well, it looks like the grey parts are purled, so if it isn't grey, perhaps that part of the stitch is knit instead?

The other possibility is that there's a mistake in the chart (perhaps that part of the symbol should be grey)--if someone else here can't explain, I would recommend contacting the designer.

[jackandahat]

Several people have suggested that - based on the whole look of it - it should be C3F, and what the designer has done is copy/pasted without fixing that symbol.

Which makes sense to me, it's just I don't know enough about charts or cabling to think "It looks like a mistake, and I should do X instead" rather than thinking "I'm screwing up here".

This is one of the things I love about the internet - no matter what I'm poking at, there's someone who's smarter than me/has done it before who can explain what's going on for me.

[sedge]

You might want to try swatching just that section with the different possibilities and see what it looks like - whichever one makes you happiest would probably be the way to go.

But seriously, if you suspect an error, you should contact the designer if you feel up to it - many people don't, and designers almost always want to know. Knitty will fix the mistake in the pattern if there is one and then other people won't be confused.

(And it probably wasn't designer error - magazines like Knitty produce the final charts.)

[jackandahat]

*nods* I'll probably have a play around with it, it's just I'm slow enough and new enough with cables/charts I felt I'd learn more getting a few people's opinions. It's been educational.

I figured because the pattern was old (spring 2008) that if there was an error someone would have caught it by now - but it could just be that people caught it, fixed it, and didn't tell anyone. Once I've got past that point in knitting and confirmed, I'll send an E-Mail double-checking with Knitty.

(Also educational: I did not know this! I followed the link to Knitty from the designer's very awesome page.)

[sedge]

Definitely a good thing to check with other people first!

You would think that someone would have reported a mistake by now, but all too often, knitters think it's them and not the pattern or else, as you guessed, they just fix it and go on without telling anyone.

[jackandahat]

And everyone thinks "Surely someone else would have done it..." like I just did.

[aedifica]

Looking ahead, it looks like whatever it is also happens in rows 5 and 19 of chart 4.

[jackandahat]

Damn, how did I miss that too? Hopefully by the time I get there I'll have a better sense of it - I'm assuming the row 5s should be shaded, the row 19s shouldn't. Thanks for pointing it out.

[antisoppist]

Looking at what the pattern is doing, in the chart and especially the bottom photo (though I wish her arm wasn't in the way), you are going from a section with some purl stitches on the right side to a section with all knit stitches on the right side, so it doesn't look as though you ought to be setting up a purl stitch on the right side when you do your cables. I'd do C3F/C3B.

[jackandahat]

*nods* That's tallying with a lot of people have said, so I'm pretty sure you're right. Thank you.