Between seeing friends near and far, packing away work stuff (I left the Saturday morning after my last day of work) and sorting through clothes, there has been a fair amount of knitting.
Here's the lace shawl so far:
It is impossible to read the ruler in this photo, but here it is about 19 inches/46.25 cm at the spine. Unfortunately the shawl is off the needles, not because it is finished, but because I found a mistake back about 6 rows. So since it would be possible to see its shape, I took time for a photo.
I thought I had been doing a pretty good job of applying my own lace knitting rules, but apparently not consistently enough. In a lace knitting chart there is always a certain segment that is repeated several times to get across an ever growing length. (For example, in the pattern below, the 8 stitches in pink represent the repeat segment.)
I have learned if I just keep counting the number of stitches knit in that repeat section it is easier than trying to follow the pattern stitch by stitch. Over a small number of stitches one can memorize what needs to be done and then focus on doing the required number. Again it amazes me that I didn't think of it until now, but that's what happened. And all was going so well until I really looked over the finished work. (I am getting better at reading my knitting; it is just too bad I don't stop to read it more often. This is really a note to myself.)
Finally, I want to point out that my instructor encouraged me to try putting beads into this shawl. I didn't want to add too many because they can add a lot of weight, but a few can help the shawl drape appropriately. It has been a good bit of fun to add them. You can see the three beads in the center of the photo below. This has been repeated approximately 20 times across every fourth row.
The technique used has the knitter place the bead over a stitch as opposed to being strung on the yarn before knitting starts. Click here to see how this technique is done. I am using a much finer yarn than the yarn in the video so my crochet hook is much smaller (this also causes the beads to be smaller than those in the video as well). In fact the crochet hook is so small it is very difficult to see the crook at the end. At first this new technique was a challenge with all the other stuff going on in a shawl, but after the first 50 or so beads, I fell in love with the technique. And the beads are picking up the best of my pond coloured yarn. This technique will be something I use again in the future.
Oh, and finally, you might be wondering why that wrinkled white sheet was used as a background for the photo. It serves to better show off the lace, but the true reason has to be with my being able to pick up the stitches and get them back on the circular needles. A light background with dark yarn makes seeing the YOs (yarn overs) so much easier. I did stop to pick up those approximate 300 stitches before I wrote this. And now the shawl measures only 18 inches/45.75 cm. Two steps forwards and one step back. This is why there's been so much knitting done lately! But I will not give in to lace knitting; instead, I plan to conquer this skill.
Here's the lace shawl so far:
 |
| My Ashton Shawl |
It is impossible to read the ruler in this photo, but here it is about 19 inches/46.25 cm at the spine. Unfortunately the shawl is off the needles, not because it is finished, but because I found a mistake back about 6 rows. So since it would be possible to see its shape, I took time for a photo.
I thought I had been doing a pretty good job of applying my own lace knitting rules, but apparently not consistently enough. In a lace knitting chart there is always a certain segment that is repeated several times to get across an ever growing length. (For example, in the pattern below, the 8 stitches in pink represent the repeat segment.)
I have learned if I just keep counting the number of stitches knit in that repeat section it is easier than trying to follow the pattern stitch by stitch. Over a small number of stitches one can memorize what needs to be done and then focus on doing the required number. Again it amazes me that I didn't think of it until now, but that's what happened. And all was going so well until I really looked over the finished work. (I am getting better at reading my knitting; it is just too bad I don't stop to read it more often. This is really a note to myself.)
Finally, I want to point out that my instructor encouraged me to try putting beads into this shawl. I didn't want to add too many because they can add a lot of weight, but a few can help the shawl drape appropriately. It has been a good bit of fun to add them. You can see the three beads in the center of the photo below. This has been repeated approximately 20 times across every fourth row.
The technique used has the knitter place the bead over a stitch as opposed to being strung on the yarn before knitting starts. Click here to see how this technique is done. I am using a much finer yarn than the yarn in the video so my crochet hook is much smaller (this also causes the beads to be smaller than those in the video as well). In fact the crochet hook is so small it is very difficult to see the crook at the end. At first this new technique was a challenge with all the other stuff going on in a shawl, but after the first 50 or so beads, I fell in love with the technique. And the beads are picking up the best of my pond coloured yarn. This technique will be something I use again in the future.
Oh, and finally, you might be wondering why that wrinkled white sheet was used as a background for the photo. It serves to better show off the lace, but the true reason has to be with my being able to pick up the stitches and get them back on the circular needles. A light background with dark yarn makes seeing the YOs (yarn overs) so much easier. I did stop to pick up those approximate 300 stitches before I wrote this. And now the shawl measures only 18 inches/45.75 cm. Two steps forwards and one step back. This is why there's been so much knitting done lately! But I will not give in to lace knitting; instead, I plan to conquer this skill.
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