Monday, November 19, 2007

Winning the Fight with Lace

Good news is that the holiday gift Trekking XXL socks are moving along well. Look how pretty sock #1 came out! Love, love, love Trekking XXL. It's just endlessly entertaining how those colors change and never seem to repeat. I made this sock just like the WendyKnits pattern, except I twisted the ribbing at the top, for more definition. Again, it's Double Eyelet Rib. There's another view on Flickr, if you click the link on the picture (plus some pix of me singing).

In more sock yarn news, I persevered and spent a few hours (I hope not wasting my time) finishing photography of ALL the rest of my sock yarn. The bottom of the Big Basket of Sock Yarn contained mostly Regia and some older yarns, but now I know what I have. I even took pictures of the solid colored yarns. Turns out I have some weird solids that someone gave me, not even wool. Oh well, they can make fun baby items or something. If you're on Ravelry, check out poor SunaSAK's over 140 stashed yarns. She seems obsessed with sock yarn.

But, Suna also loves laceweight. And worked with it much of the weekend when not singing in the big community choir concert (it was lovely!) or listening to others make music.

Juno Regina tried to kill me, to the extent that at one point I covered up the endlessly smiling model's face on the pattern--she appeared to be mocking me--SHE had made this successfully, why couldn't I? I ended up making a mistake I could not locate to repair, which necessitated a re-start on Saturday evening. That was disheartening. At least I discovered where I was messing up (as usually, a knit stitch on the chart was hiding from me). Charts with different repeats that go in different orders can be hard to parse sometimes, and it's exacerbated by using such fine yarn. I got happier when I switched to a slightly larger needle, though. Nonetheless, nothing is as tedious as erasing lace. I even (gasp) ALMOST put in a life line. But, nah, I couldn't locate the unscented dental floss fast enough.

I am sure I drove Lee insane cursing at the stitches and requesting silence over and over. But, I am happy to report that no only did I figure out what I was doing, I got three quarters through the third chart! I am into sections with mindless parts, which means I will soon be zooming away. I have a lot of fights with lace, but this one I think I am winning!

With the Claudia Handpainted silk, which is finer than the silk/wool the original was made in, the stole is apparently going to be more of a wide scarf. But I can see it draped over a white top very elegantly, anchored by a lovely shawl pin. (I say white, because it is fairly dark so would not show up as well against black, and because Boot Camp is a colorway that does not "match" much other than neutrals.

That's the knitting report from the weekend!

5 comments:

  1. I'm on chart 4 now. I had to rip the whole thing out and start all over right after I began chart 3 the first time, though.

    I'm knitting it with the fuschia laceweight I dyed.

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  2. tina,
    can you explain the 3 graph or better yet cut and paste what it looks like actually? i am fine with reading the graphs but when it says take out and put back in i am totally lost. at the end of graph 2 i have 89 stitches. if i do graph 3 first repeat then i don't end up with enough stitches and i don't know what i am doing wrong. lynn

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  3. Tina feel free to jump in. I will give it a go.

    On chart 3, the first repeat you will work with all the motifs, so you just do the middle section (B) 4 times. Do the edge, 4 repeats of B and then the other edge. For ten rows.

    The second repeat, you begin to get rid of motifs and start adding in plain sections (A and C). So, you'd knit an edge, then section A, move straight to B, repeat it 3 times, then do a section C and an edge. For ten rows.

    The third repeat, you would knit two section As after the edge (being careful to note that little extra square at the end), then two Bs, then two As, then the edge. You have two solid strips on each edge going now. (look at the picture--see how they come in one at a time?).

    The fourth repeat, you would do A three times, B once and C three times

    Then in the next chart (4), you would finish off the top of the last motif you started in repeat 4 of chart 3.

    Then you do plain strips a long time. Charts 5-8 reverse the process.

    I am also going to add this as a separate post. Let me know if it helps.

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  4. i am going to try this tonight and maybe tomorrow. thank you so much, written out it seems to make sense. lynn

    ReplyDelete

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