The MKAL of Ice and Fire- Clue #4 Tutorial

Hi everyone!

As promised, I've put together a little tutorial for separating the back from the front on your Mystery KAL project. I will encourage you all once again, as I did on the Ravelry thread, to follow the directions step by step and very literally. I would even go as far as to say you may not want to read through them all the way for this section..just do it! If you over-think it too much, it will become more confusing than it's worth.

That said, many people are visual learners. Sometimes, with more complicated directions like this, there is just no "right way" to explain it, regardless of how carefully you edit your directions. However, I do apologize for some of the silly mistakes that I made in my sleep deprived state. I should have been more careful with the directions for this post and I am sorry for all of the confusion. The directions in Clue #4 should be fully updated now, and much clearer than what I posted early on Sunday. (Some people said they are having issues getting the edited version. If this is the case, remember to refresh your browser or clear your cache as your computer may be storing old versions of the post.)

Ok, so on to the tutorial for dividing the back from the front. This starts AFTER you have placed the side stitch markers. Please forgive my ugly orange yarn. At least you can see the sts really well! :)

Also, you may have noticed that for this tutorial I didn't use the full 120 sts. If you follow these directions as written, you should still have the 64 sts on front and 66 sts on back.

Separating the front from the back:

-Remove beginning of round marker and cut yarn leaving at least a 6" tail.

-Working from the beginning of the round, slip stitches from left to right needle to 2 sts before the first side marker. 

-Rejoin yarn, K1 f&b (5 times), slipping marker when you come to it. (You should have 2 increases on the right side of the marker and 3 on the left side.)

5 increases: 2 on right, 3 on left of marker

-Knit to 3 sts before the next marker.

-K1 f&b (5 times), slipping marker when you come to it. (You should have 3 increases on the right side of the marker and 2 on the left side.)

2 increases left, 3 increases right

-K to 4 sts before the next marker.

-Knit next st with main needle, slip 2nd st onto extra needle holding towards the inside of your work (or you can use a darning needle to thread in your waste yarn).

-Continue working the next 8 stitches in this manner, knit one with main needle, slip one on extra needle or waste yarn. Remove stitch marker when you come to it.

I left the stitch marker on for reference.

-You will have knit 5 sts on main needle, and slipped 5 onto extra circular or waste yarn. (As shown in picture above.)

-Leaving main needle for a minute, use extra circular needle or waste yarn to slip all stitches up to 5 sts before the next marker onto the holder or waste yarn.

-Slip next stitch with extra double point needle (DPN) or cable needle and hold to front, slip next stitch onto circular needle or waste yarn held in back.

-Continue slipping 1 stitch onto DPN or cable needle, and the next stitch onto extra circular or waste yarn until you have 5 sts on the DPN or cable needle. Remove stitch marker when you come to it.

I left the stitch marker in pic for reference.

 -You should now have 66 sts (this is the back) on extra circular or waste yarn with 5 sts on either end that overlap with 5 sts on the front section. The back section's sts will be on the inside while the front is on the outside.

-Slip stitches from DPN or cable needle onto right side end of main circular needle.

-You should now have 64 sts on main/front needle, this is the front.

Front is also where the beginning of the
round used to be.

I hope these pictures help to show you what these steps should look like. If I didn't include a photo for a step, it was because the step above or below basically illustrated it, or I couldn't get a decent shot of it. In any case, I think these should help those of you who are struggling with the separating part. Of course, please let me know if you have anymore issues.

If after doing this, you still are having problems with the stitch count and are getting 66 on front and 64 on back, here is my advice:

1) Skip Rows 1-6 of the birds eye lace- these are just set up rows anyway to get your stitch count up to 66 sts. Just follow rows 7-10 of the birds eye lace and you will be fine.

-or-

2) You can decrease two sts on this row by purling 2 together twice in the middle section somewhere:

"Leaving the back sts on holder, work front panel as follows:

-Row 1: k 5, pm, p to last 5 sts, pm, k 5"

-or-

3) You can simply slip one stitch on either end of the needle onto your holder needle or waste yarn.

One last thing I just wanted to say. This was a really tough section. Not just to knit, but also for me to write. It's not so much that the actual knitting part is difficult, but it's just really tough to visualize and execute blindly. It was also a challenge to write it in a way that 600+ people will understand. I have to give all of you a ton of credit for sticking with it and staying positive. It's not easy, but you CAN do it. I think that is why a lot of you are here, not just to be part of a group celebrating a book series/ show that we all love, but also to learn a little something along the way. If it was too easy, you'd be bored, and if it was crazy hard, then no one would be here. 

Think of this one clue as the really tough uphill section just before you get to the top of the mountain peak. You are so close to the summit, and when you get there you are going to have the sweetest view, which makes it all worth it. At least after this you won't be out of breath and sore afterwards. Well, at least I hope not. :) I guess what I mean is that I don't want this section to discourage people from continuing on. Powering forth and struggling through the tough spots is how we get better at our craft. This discussion we've been having on Ravelry the past few days has been a huge learning opportunity for me as well. I thank you all for that opportunity and for being so thoughtful and patient with me in your discussion.

I really hope this helps you all! Please let me know if you have anymore questions, concerns, or issues with the pattern. I am here to help!

Happy knitting,

Kristen