Will 3 Times Be the Charm? My Tahki Rainbow Top

I have learned a thing.  Finally.  Actually, I've learned several things.  Today.

Maybe a little backstory will be helpful: Last summer I decided to knit a T-shirt. Rainbow Top from Tahki Stacy Charles - an oldie from 2014.

I was going to use cream, cocoa and turquoise  Cascade Yarns Sunseeker,  In July, I had finished one front, using my new Addi Rockets Squared needles (which I LOVE), and wasn't crazy about the resulting fabric.  I thought it was a little too loosely knit.

So, I swallowed hard and ripped it out.

About a week later, I made a more serious gauge swatch than I did the 1st time (Thing learned #1) and found that a smaller needle gave me the fabric I preferred.  My gauge was too large, so I made a smaller size.   I liked it and enjoyed knitting it.

After I finished, in early September, I wasn't in the mood for  carefully stitching the front seams together, even though the front, back and sleeves were finished.  So, it hibernated for over a month - until today.  My schedule unexpectedly changed, and I determined that today was the day I was going to finish that tee.

As I stitched it together, I was absolutely  thrilled at the "magic" of the kitchener stitch and how invisible it is.

Magic!!

Great, until I looked at it the way I should have looked at the 1st front I ripped out.    What's wrong with this picture?  The increases in the center are evenly spaced, but the left side is much longer than the right.   I couldn't believe I didn't see it while I was knitting - that the number of stitches on each side of the increases GREW on the left side but not on the right.

I reread the pattern instructions, and I followed them exactly.  That answered a question that always niggled at me: Why was there only 1 completed garment on Ravelry, in all the years the pattern was out?   (as of July, anyway). This was why.  People either modified it and didn't inform Tahki or people knit it and got my result more than once and just gave up.

When I analyzed how it's constructed - quite unconventional, which is what attracted me to it,  I saw what was wrong with the pattern instructions.  The center is cast on, and each row is knit on a long circular needle - but straight - not in the round.  The increases are made at 4 points, in the center of the cast on edge.  The first time the increases are made, you place a marker, and then knit into  the front and back of a stitch (which causes an increase.  But, the  4th one, which is on the. left side, adds a stitch to the length of the side each time.   That's why mine was so much longer.

What was missing from the pattern instructions, is to knit to 3 stitches from the end of the row, knit 2 together and then knit the last stitch. Just to be sure, I made a  little model of my concept.

Yes, I was able to maintain the same number of stitches on each side of the increase line on the right and left.  It was also totally worth the time and effort. So, it's. a really good idea, to create a mock up of any strange/new/innovative construction techniques, to see if it works, according to pattern instructions, and to rework it at that point, if the instructions are wrong. (Thing learned #2)

I ripped this tee out, too.  Unlike the one I ripped out in July, I studied and photographed the problem pieces.  It's important to really understand all of what you don't like about what you've made. (Think learned #3). Had I done that last time,  I'd be wearing my new tee, rather than planning to haul it out of the yarn stash in the spring, for attempt #3.  Maybe that will be the charm.

I'm familiar with a lot of patterns by the designer Irina Poludnenko, and I have knit several of her designs.  I think this was an editorial problem and somehow the knit 2 together needed at the end of the knit rows when increasing, was accidentally edited out.  Irina is very experienced and wouldn't overlook such a detail.