Clarifications, Adaptations, Corrections and Advice for Knitting Salt Peanuts

All the following notes are based on my personal experience knitting Salt Peanuts as well as advice I got along the way.  Thank you to the following people:

Jessie at And Knitting Too  for posting her progress and answering my cries for help

Michelle at the Dye Pot for the same reason

Chelsea at Small Hands  for organizing the knit along and gathering/organizing everyone's notes. 

Iko at Wool Gathering for contacting me with corrections and suggestions.

And my husband.  He doesn't knit but he understands geometry and compound curves!

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 I used the recommended yarn, Muench Bergamo and I was on gauge.  I made the Large size and because I was on gauge, did not need to make any sizing alterations, so none are included in my notes.

Back:  I found the back easy and straightforward, and have no recommended changes.

Fronts:  In the lace rib border section, the edge that will become the front opening should be knit in a 2 stitch garter ridge.  It is patterned as such, but is easy to miss since you will have become accustomed to a k1 p1 edge from the back.  The pattern does not point it out  until 18 rows into the bottom of the front.  Note that the side edge, which attaches to the back is still done in a k1 p1 edge. 

Whenever there was written a P2tog tbl (purl 2 together through back loop), I replaced it with a k3tog.  The p2tog tbl left too large a hole, too large a bump, set the stitch up to be wrong for the rib pattern and generally frustrated me.  You do NOT have to change to a k3tog, it was an aesthetic choice for me.

In the first paragraph of the Shape Waist section, you are instructed to work last 5 sts in lace rib with 2 garter selvedge sts as established.  If 2 of the 5 stitches are garter stitch, that leaves 3 lace stitches, NOT 5.  Do not become confused and knit 8 stitches in the lace border.  It may help to place a marker separating the 5 border stitches from the body.  In other words, if you think of the border as separate from the body.  At least until you get to the collar reverse/shaping/short rowing.

The long-hand instructions from the Shape Waist; including waist decreases are as follows: {this is after you have repeated row 1 one more time}

Left Front:

(RS)
{row 2} K1,ssk, k to last 5 sts, p1, k2tog, yo, k2
{row 3 and all WS rows: k2, p2, k1, p to end}
row
4} k to last 5, p1, k4
6} k to last 5, p1, k4
8} k1, ssk, k to last 5, p1, k4
10} k to last 5, p1, k2tog, yo, k2
12} repeat row 4
14} k1, ssk, k to last 5, p1, yo, ssk, k2
16} repeat row 8
18} repeat row 10
20} repeat row 8
22} repeat row 6
24} repeat row 8
26} repeat row 2
28} repeat row 4
30} repeat row 6
32} repeat row 8
34} repeat row 10
36} repeat row 4
38} repeat row 14
40} repeat row 8
42} repeat row 10
44} repeat row 4
46} repeat row 6
48} repeat row 8
{end of decrease repeats}
repeat the following 8 rows until your piece reaches length indicated in pattern:
49} k2, p2, k1, p to end
50} k to last 5, p1, k2tog, yo, k2
51} repeat 49
52} k to last 5, p1, k4
53} repeat 49
54} k to last 5, p1, yo, ssk, k2
55} repeat 49
56} k to last 5, p1, k4
{after your piece reaches length indicated in pattern, but on the next row #1, 9 and 17, begin with a k2, m1}

Iko has added this:  (used with permission)

This brings you to the instructions: work even until piece measures (x) from beginning, ending with a WS row. Note: armhole shaping, neck shaping pattern reversal for collar and short rows for collar are all worked at the same time.  And boy are they!  On my piece, the shape neck and reverse collar pattern (at a measurement of 16.25") happened to coincide with my first back double decrease.  Hopefully yours will, too, but if not, you can write out a worksheet like this:

*this is where I reached my next important measurement (17.5"), where short rows needed to be inserted every 4 rows 5 times.  I was extremely confused by the short row instructions, which read:  short row 1 (WS): work 10 lace rib sts as established, turn, yo, work to end; short row 2 (RS): work 10 sts as established, p2tog tbl (the yo and the neighboring st), work to end.  I have seen several people do different things here, but here's what worked for me:

Since the SR can only be begun on a WS row, on row 8, I worked the normal instructions for lace portion of row 8, but instead of purling to the end, I turned it (short rowing), yo, worked only the lace rib portion of row 9 (2nd short row) and then turned and worked row 10, when I reached that yo, instead of doing the p2tog tbl, I  k3tog and then purled to the end, completing row 10.  {{ **Jessie** combined the yo and the stitch on the other side of the marker into a p2tog tbl, thereby decreasing the shoulder portion and giving a curve to the front.   **Michelle** used a p3tog tbl to get rid of that pesky extra yo}}  

Also of note at that time, there appears to be a confusing typo or accidental lack of instruction for the shoulder decrease here.  the Instructions say:  cont lace rib patt as for rows 5-12 on the 10 marked sts at front edge and cont to dec before m on RS rows as before every 4 rows (x) times.  The confusion comes in because in rows 5-12 you would decrease before marker every other row, not every 4 rows.  {{Michelle read this as a typo and just decreased every 4 rows,  Jessie did the first 5-12 as a decrease each RS row and thereafter did it only once every 4 rows}}  I decreased every right side row until my full shaping was down to the right number for my size and continued to work even after that up to the shoulder bind off.  All the methods seem to work well.

At this point, your shoulder is bound off and you continue the lace rib collar with the one body stitch that's left being stockinette.  If you follow the instructions, you will not be doing any more short rows, but since the line from the shoulder seam to the back of the neck is a compound curve and I wanted the collar to lie flat, I continued to insert 2 short rows after each 2 normal rows until the end.  I also removed the stitch marker once the BO's were complete and rather than k3tog to get rid of the extra yo after the short rows, I purled the yo tog with the body stitch, which helped give a sturdier edge to be sewn down. 

I did a total of one repeat of rows 1-12 and after that, 9 repeats of 5-12.  I did a total of 16 SR inserts. 

For the Right Front, you will essentially reverse these instructions, your bind offs will occur on the WS rows, the SRs will occur on RS rows. 

If you find any mistakes, please contact me so I can correct them.  Hopefully you will find these tips helpful!

Jennifer Fleury

www.jenla.blogspot.com;    (you can find my email address here should you wish to contact me)

www.knottygirls.com