I haven't done a lace project in a long time. The last thing I posted about here was my stranded mittens. They were challenging, yes, but they weren't lace. Since that time, I've completed three other projects:
- A new South End Knitter's Hat to replace the one I lost on the subway (not as warm as that one, and not as good a size, *sob*
- The Cowl What Feels Like Kittens (a simple braided cowl, a one-skein project to make use of this divinely soft baby alpaca yarn I bought during the North Shore Yarn Crawl)
- Yet another Super-Natural Stripes baby sweater, this time in spring-y green/yellow/purple for my friend from high school, who's having her first baby next month
So, that's four projects in a row that did not involve lace at all, and only two of which were actually new patterns for me. I've been thinking for some time now that I'd really like a bright sunny yellow shawl, and figured now would be as good a time as any to start one. Yellow is one of the few colors of Knitpicks Palette I don't have, so I knew I would have to buy some new yarn. That meant that I had no constraints whatsoever in choosing a pattern--I could use any weight, any amount of yarn.
I decided to do a semicircular shawl, since I've found that shape to be really good for me. It covers enough of my arms to keep them warm, without having to be really long as well (triangles tend to be either really long at the point, or too small to cover my arms). After browsing through Ravelry, I settled on Tru Wuv by Mawelucky. I adore the combination of rounded shapes and delicate points in the pattern. It's very ornate, and I really was looking for something that would allow me to flex my lace-knitting muscles more than I have since finishing my full-size Aeolian.
It seems there aren't a whole lot of yarn manufacturers who do a solid-or-lightly-heathered vivid sunny yellow lace yarn. I found what appears to be the perfect option, though: Fyberspates Gleem Lace in Sunshine. It's BFL and silk, so it has a nice combination of spring, drape, and shine. Plus, it's exactly the right shade of sunny yellow I was looking for!
This pattern is VERY challenging. The actual knitting isn't so bad, but reading the pattern is confusing. I usually work well with charts, but the directions that go with the charts are spare, and the charts themselves can be a bit baffling. I am going to try to be diligent about making notes to show what's confused me, and explain what I figured out. So far:
- Casting on, there's no reason you need a provisional cast-on, since at no point that I see do you unravel it. Yes, you are supposed to have three stitches before the first marker and two after the second marker. The border stitches go back and forth between two and three on each side throughout the shawl: on each row (right and wrong side), you add a stitch on the two-stitch-side with an initial YO, and decrease a stitch on the three-stitch-side with a final SSK or P2TOG.
- For the setup chart, ignore the indications to place a marker: these are actually the same markers you placed when you were picking up the stitches on your...not really garter tab, but...stockinette-ish tab? Anyway, the markers shown on the setup chart are already there. Also, in the square where the "place marker" symbol is? That's just that: place the marker, it's not a stitch.
- Don't pay attention to the column counts at the top and bottom of the charts. Those numbers don't actually apply all through the chart. You don't start out with that many stitches! At the beginning of the transition chart, for example, there's a lot of empty space in those columns, indicating NO stitches there.
- On the transition chart, unlike the setup chart, you SHOULD place a marker every time it says "place marker." You are not placing one marker between pattern repeats, but instead you are going to have two markers per pattern repeat, plus another at the beginning and at the end of the row, with just one stitch between that marker and the marker indicating where the border stitches are.
I think that as I continue, the charts will make more sense to me. This pattern is really a test of "trust the charts," combined with, "...but make sure you know what the chart is actually saying."
