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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Knitting Lace

This has been an adventure in frustration and internet research.  I have, quite literally, pulled this thing apart 5 times.  First the rounds weren't lining up properly, then the stitch count was off.  So, after vowing that I was not going to be defeated by this #$&* pattern, I went back to square one. 

Here was the first problem.  The pattern grid had these spaces labeled "no stitch".  What the blazes did that mean?  Well, after looking it up on the internet (thank you Gia for knittinghelp.com) I found out that it means just that, No Stitch.  You ignore it, you do nothing, don't even count it.  Problem one solved.

Second problem was that, well, I was reading the pattern grid like you read anything.  Top to bottom and left to right.  Nah uh.  You are supposed to read them from the bottom right hand corner for the first row and then from right to left for the second row and so on.  That explains why the pattern wasn't lining up.

Good, so now I know how to read the pattern and the counts are coming out right.  HA!  I told you it wouldn't defeat me.

This is what it looks like in the magazine
Here is what the first repeat looks like on my needle.  There are 7 repeats of 20 rounds and then a border that is added to the bottom.


Stay tuned to see what happens next.

1 comment:

  1. Wow! Lisa, it looks gorgeous! Well done.

    In your reading about lace knitting, have you encountered 'lifelines' yet? Basically, you take some light yarn or thread (preferably contrasting in color) and put in on a darning needle and every so often run a line through all the stitches on the needle (straight through, parallel to the needle from end to end). That way if you wind up with a problem further up, you can rip back to the lifeline, pick up a known set of good stitches, and reknit from there. The problem being that it can be very hard to rip back lace knitting and pick up the *right* set of stitches. Anyway, lots of lace-knitters swear by it.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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