Backwards Progress

Well, I almost had the front of the Urban Aran done last night. I stress almost. In my joyous haze of a memorized pattern, I just kept on knitting. I had made notes about the back and what row of the chart I had stopped at so I could make the front the same length, and stop at the same point in the cable. Unfortunately, I forgot to re-read the instructions which have you knit the front the same as the back up until a certain point (didn't see the little "**" to stop and change to the instructions for the front) then move to a new set of directions. So, I knit happily along thinking I would be able to start the sleeve as well as the front was going so quickly. Well, once I hit that stop point I had marked for the back, I went to read my directions for the next step. Yeah. That's when it hit me....I knit 3 1/2" too far! So, now I need to frog back and figure out where in the chart I will end up. Darn rhythmic knitting. It puts you in a trance!

My other little conundrum has to do with where I split for the zipper. Since I'm only doing a half-zip instead of a full cardigan I started dividing for the front when I stared the armhole shaping. Jared, Laura and Diana all made incredible full cardigan versions and added a few stitches to the center for selvage for sewing in the zipper. I didn't add any extra, so there are only 2 purl stitches at the center - one going to each side when I divide for the zipper. Now, That doesn't leave me with anything to sew the zipper to. The center cable starts immediately after that purl stitch. Since I have to rip out anyway, and didn't (obviously) think about this before hand and add more stitches all the way up the front, I'm not sure quite what to do.

Here is a closer picture of the cable. I'm not sure if more purl stitches would just disappear in the rib like effect of the cable, so one or even two additional on each side wouldn't make a huge difference, or if I'm just asking for disaster.....

Odds are I will never wear it fully zipped to the top, but I still would like it to look nice if I do. Since I only need a 6" or so zipper, I plan on getting the smaller, finer toothed version, and it wouldn't need as much room to be sewn in. I could increase a stitch on each side after the split, but I think it may look goofy when zipped up - the center cable and the purl stitches between it wouldn't line up correctly.

Either way, I'm off to do a little ripping....