Tenna, I use excel at work but not for knitting. It reminds me of work too much,haha. The highliter is my best friend. I reverse the symbols also for the other half of the back. I figured the chart would be too long if I reversed everything on paper for the remaining half and would be too cumbersome to work with so I am using those brain cells instead.

Susan

P.S. I am looking forward to seeing a picture once you have that shaping done.

I charted the pattern in Stitch and Motif Maker, and my swatches are much less complicated - still waiting for the yarn to arrive from Canada.
Dicksie

I was going to do the same thing. Is there any chance that you'd share your Excel chart? I'd really appreciate it, if you don't mind. I can't wait to start this sweater... and the one on the front cover, too.

Tenna, if you decide to share your chart, I would welcome a copy, too!

I would love to share the chart, however, it would be copyright infringement--of course, so I cannot.

All I did was to copy the chart in the book--darn near verbatim--to Excel subbing FC for a left leaning fish with an underline, BC for a right leaning fish with an underline fc for a left leaning fish (no underline) and bc for a right leaning fish (no underline) T for a Twisted stitch (whether on RS or WS)K for Knit and a blank cell for purl (reversed for WS, but the key is still the same so even tho it says K you'd purl on the wrong side and a space on the wrong side is a knit stitch). CB for cable back and CF for Cable Front (specifically for the cable in chart F, which is a special type of cable, different from either B or D).

I numbered the rows from the bottom up, and copy/pasted the repeats by moving the cell selector up to the appropriate row before pasting, filling in 124 rows on the spreadsheet.
I also noted at the top how many rows in the repeat so that when I finished with the DECREASE ROWS, I knew what to knit there as well.

As I go knit each row, I highlite it, and the decreased stitches are blacked out since they aren't there anymore.

I read the chart as written from right to left, doing the stitches as they are presented, when I get done with chart A, I work backward, returning to chart B and work them right to left (CABLE), Chart C from left to right (mentally reversing the crossed stitches), Chart D from right to left (CABLE), Chart E from left to right (mentally reversing the crossed stitches), Chart F from left to right (mentally reversing the cable (ie, CB for CF, because there are plain knit stitches in this pattern in comparison to Chart B and D), Chart G from left to right (as in Chart B, Chart H from left to right (as in Chart B)...in order to maintain the mirror image.

The thing to remember is that with STANDARD CABLES, there is no difference, one side of the mirror to the other. The exception is the Cable done in Chart F, which includes plain knit stitches along with a cable that first crosses on the left, then crosses on the right, making it more of a CROSS than a cable, but it's really technically a cable). With CROSSES, however, it DOES matter. You have to mentally turn the crosses in the opposite direction--so a BC becomes an FC, a bc and fc, and so on.

I sure wish I could share the spreadsheet, but if you have the book, just plot the stitches in for the repeat, then copy and paste until you have 124 total rows total for the pattern (70 + 54).

Now that I've totally confused all of us...

I don't think you are ADD at all. I am still trying to figure out all the charts, but I'm sure I'll have to chart them all out, either in excel or on knitter's graph paper. Dang it about those copyright laws anyway (LOL)!

Now about 10-15 rows into the armhole shaping, and the slant is working perfectly...Here is how I'm working it in American lingo...

On the right side, k1, ssk and work the rest of the chart to the last 3 stitches, k2tog k1.

On the wrong side, p1, p2tog and work the rest of the charts to the last 3 stitches, skpo, p1.

(Now, so far, as I said b4, I BO 5 stitches at the beg of the first 2 rows, but on the second row, I also did the decreases for the first time...this set things up so that I am not working in the middle of an FC or a BC...so I think it's the right way, but I can't be sure.)

So far, it seems to be working very well, except for the work even row where I had a crossed stitch right at the beginning, but the "effect" worked out to give the same "appearance" as the k1, ssk....k2tog, k1, so all is well so far.