More knitting adventures -- A new exciting project!!!

Helloooo!!!!!
In my previous post I wanted to talk about this, but then the post became so long with all the other things I wanted to share that I have to save this for a new post.

Here it is:

Last month, when I was visiting Mexico, I took time to visit some of the local yarn shops. I went to 6, and I know of about other 8 or 10... but Mexico city is so big, that I'm pretty sure I don't know even half of the exsisting yarn shops there!!!
Now that I'm "living" the daily life of a yarn shop and that I saw (with the moving of my LYS that I helped) what it takes to put a yarn shop... I'm dreaming about opening my own yarn shop whenever we get back to Mexico City!!! wouldn't that be wonderful???
But that's another story, that hopefully will happen some day...

For now, what I have in my hands is a new project. I saw a sample of it in one of the yarn shops I visited in Mexico and I LOVED it...

I can't really show you what it is because I didn't take a picture, and I don't have a pattern for it.
But I can try to explain it... it is a cardigan for myself that pretty much has this shape:

But instead of being worked top-down or bottom-up, what I would call vertical direction beacuse it grows vertically.... it's worked from the opening on one side to the opening on the other, so the rows are worked from bottom to top to bottom again, and the knitting grows in a horizontal direction... (hope it makes sense...)

I think I have figured it out, but I don't know if I can explain it yet... here's the drawing that the lady at the yarn shop made for me as an explanation of the pattern::

She said, using worsted weight yarn (I got 100% mercerized cotton, Fontana yarn by Omega) and 6mm&10US size needles, you cast on 80 stitches and knit 1.5in of 2x2 ribbing... leave the last 12 stitches to work a 1x1 special ribbing that will be worked in short rows respect to the body to form the neckline. For the rest of the stitches choose whatever stitches you want and work your numbers to have them divided in the total amount of stitches that you have... work until you've reached the side and put 40 stitches on hold and keep working with the top 40st to make the sleeve... when you've finished the sleeve, pick up the stitches you had on hold and work the back of the cardigan until you get to the other side, then put your stitches on hold and make the second sleeve as the first one, pick up the stitches and get to the end (the opening) and finish with 1.5in of ribbing.

Simple huh??

Well, so with that I came, hoping not to forget what she had said and explained... I spent an afternoon on Ravelry looking for stitch patterns to use in my project and found a lot that I liked... discarded, reasses, discard again...
When I've decided, I spent more time reading each pattern carefully, working math and numbers to have the right amount of stitches for a repear of two of the pattern... how many stitch patterns do I need? how many total stitches can I use? how will this work???????

Finally, adding some stitches to be worked in garter stitch in between each stitch pattern I decided I was ready to start...
I took my yarn, my 10 US size needles and casted on...

90 stitches to start (because I'm bigger than the lady at the yarn shop), 2in of ribbing... start with the pattern......... Oh no!!!! the numbers match but the fabric is TOO open and you can barely distinguish the stitch patterns wich is the whole point of this vest.

So I took some pictures:::

Rip it all and started all over again... in 8 US size needles...

I added 10 more stitches to compensate the needle size reduction. So I'm working with 100 stitches now. I have 6 stitch patterns going at once. I changed some of the first patterns for cables and for that I changed some of the garter stitches division for stockinet and reverse stockinet, so the patterns and the cables show better.

I've finished the first front and I'm about to put on hold the bottom stitches (60) to work the top 40 for the sleeve... I don't have photos of it at this moment... hopw to take them in a while... when I'm working on it...

I'm SOOOO truly excited by this project... I'm happy that the numbers are working, I'm delighted on how it looks!!! and I'm SOOO proud of myself of being able to figuring it out and actually make it work. It's a big thing for a No-Knitter like me!!!!
I guess I've learned something from watching my friends knit all the time!!!

I'll be back soon with photos of the project... now I'm off to the shop to keep working on it!!!

See you soon!
S.