do i take a chance? ...

I’ve been quietly knitting this longish, lace cardigan that I mentioned a week or so ago in the medium brown wool. I started with the sleeves – I always feel this is a good thing to do – it gradually gets me and the machine in the groove for lace carriage work before the heavy stuff of knitting lace across the whole bed, like for the back. I can practise my ravel cord shortrowing on the sleeve cap http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2017/01/life-lessons.html and think about the other details of the design. I took a chance without making a whole new swatch (kids, don’t try this at home!) and deleted a few rows from the hem band, as it seemed a little deep, two less after the circular rows and two less between the racks, so 20 rows total instead of 24 and it looks nicer.
While knitting the back, the widest piece, I took my time and broke it up into 44-row spurts – that’s my row gauge, so it reminded me to hang the yarn marks at the edges for seaming and it gave me a breakpoint for the yarn spray which I found worked better when I left it sitting on the cone for a few minutes before proceeding. https://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2013/02/addicted-to-yarn-spray.html My method: put the cone into a larger, soft plastic bag with the opening at the top. I opened the bag, gave a couple of squirts and closed the bag over it for a second or two and then went back to knitting or took a coffee break.
While knitting the back, I sorted through my initial concept and decided to break up the back with a yoke across the top, going sideways and contemplated putting pockets in the fronts. I’ve never done this in lace before, so I was going over it in my mind. After I got the back off the machine and pressed out, I knit a 4X5 inch stockinette patch that would be the inside of the pocket – I figured an inside patch would be the better option here as a bag-style can pouch out sometimes. I do have a back-up plan, to sew a small snap inside in the centre of the pocket top opening, if necessary. Where does the 4X5 inch come from, you ask? Just my own idea of how big a pocket in knitting should be, basically the width of your hand across the knuckles and the depth from fingertip to the fork of your thumb. You don’t want it too big or it will bag and sag – to me the point of a pocket is to hold a credit card/money, maybe i.d. or your hotel room key and that’s it.
I pinned the patch inside the back where it would be positioned on the front and held it up in front of me, with a light-coloured backing on, so the brown lace fabric would show up better, to the mirror and I think I can live with this! I’m going for it!
Have a great weekend!