Friday, June 09, 2006

Icarus shawl - beginning lace charts

I think this is row 5 or so of chart 3. I really like the way the lace is developing - having the purl columns helps me keep my place, and the pattern seems to develop naturally from the section above it. I still do make mistakes, and am making them now (especially as I'm watching the World Cup while working on this) but the pattern is visually clear so usually I can catch them fairly quickly. I think I'll put a lifeline in after I finish chart 3, though, because it looks more complicated after that.

The main problem I have is purling back on the wrong side - whenever I have YO's associated with a purl stitch, they look really funny on the other side and if I'm not careful I can mistake one stitch for two, or purl into the wrong strand. It keeps me on my toes!

And here's a pic in "poofy breeches" mode:

icarus shawl, in poofy drawer mode

1 comment:

Kate A. said...

Oh! So pretty, in both "modes"! I had the same problem with the YOs next to purl stitches. I came very near to twisting them about a hundred times, which is part of what slowed me down (since I'm done now, I know it doesn't seem slow, but really - I've been doing almost nothing else for days!). I made a habit of glancing back at the last couple inches every time I pulled the new sts on the left needle up toward the tip, before resuming knitting. I caught most mistakes this way, since, as you said, the lines of the pattern are blessedly clear. And I think my lifelines gave me some strange sense of security that ironically kept me from screwing up as much as usual. Odd, but I'm not going to question it. But it also seemed to me that the lace pattern was almost easier as it went on. After so many miles of the first chart, my fingers had a tendency to always do k2tog before SSK, etc, but once I got used to the change it got easier and easier. And less boring, as the previously endless rows of purl on the WS got faster with the addition of patches of knit stitch.