Knitting - How I Manage To Remember Where I Am In My Pattern

I have been having a break from the sewing as I have had a few troubles with my machine lately so save throwing it out of the window I decided to leave it for a little while and do a bit of knitting instead.  Then may be when I go back to it I will find I can sort it out with a clear head.

My youngest daughter bought me this pattern when she went on holiday with her friend as a present lol, hoping I would knit it for her.

It takes 800 grams of aran yarn to make it in her size (I am glad its one of the smaller sizes) so I looked about for a good deal, then the other day I was up out town and saw a new stall in our market selling wool and they had just the right thing I was looking for.  It is a similar yarn type in looks to the one in the picture but the flecks in it are a bit more coloured than just brown flecks.  The wool cost me just under £10 for the two 400g balls.

I have finished the left front already and last night I sat and did the rib for the other front.  I was too tired to make a start on the pattern yet.

When I do knitting for something like this I always make myself up a piece of paper to help me keep a check of where I am up to and when to do my decreasing etc, and I can then check that the other side is exactly the same as the first when it says something like work until the piece measures so and so.  What I do is I get a piece of a4 paper.  Now say after the rib it says work until it measures 35cm, then I would draw on the paper some small circles in rows of ten in a row.  Inside these circles I put what row I am up to on my pattern (the aran pattern goes over 28 rows then starts again), then every time I finish a row I stick the knitting needle through the circle to make a hole and I can remember where I am up to and what the next row will be on my pattern.  I then keep working until the piece measures what I want it to be and then I mark this row on my piece of paper with a bigger circle around the outside so on the next side I will know where to stop knitting.

Then I carry on with the circles in rows of tens (makes it easier to count them if I have to) and mark the decreasing for the fronts by marking an X through the circles of the rows that need a decrease, then I mark the decrease rows for the armholes with a square around the circle of the rows that need to decrease.  This way I can see at a glance as I make a hole through the paper what row I need to do next in my aran pattern and whether I need to decrease either end.

When I finished the first front I then copy out the pattern I have made up onto another piece of A4 and I can get the second front exactly to match the first without keep having to count rows and check the pattern.

This is also a good idea for knitting the back to the same lengths to match the front with the armhole decreasing etc.  And then I would make an entirely new one for the sleeves so that they are the same.

I hope this idea might help someone else who has trouble remembering where they are up to in a pattern whilst knitting.  It is so easy to do and is a godsend for me.