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February 12, 2006
Inner Border Done
Finally the inner border is done. I had my doubts. I was almost finished a couple of days ago when I noticed the corner lace patterns were off by two stitches in the last four rows. It was so obviously WRONG I couldn’t even remotely consider the possibility of ignoring those itty bits. So I frogged unhappily.
Frogging lace is horrid. Frogging lace with fingering weight Suri is wretched. Frogging lace to save four imperfect sections out of 32 is wearing. But picking up those thousand stitch rows, those tiny hairy wayward stitches, that my dear knitters, will test your character. Two days, lots of naps and the big guns: a magnifying lamp and a crochet hook.
Things I did right
I enlarged the pattern including legend. I attached the make 1 right and make 1 left instructions to each side of the pattern so I didn’t forget which one to use. I used markers at each pattern repeat. I used as many as necessary, alternating colors and sizes to mark the sides and corners with a special bead one to mark the end of a row. This worked really well.
Things I should’ve done
Look at your knitting! Who said that? Zimmerman? Joyce? By focusing solely on the pattern I didn’t pay attention to what was right in front of me. This is where you really learn to knit lace. Lace does have a logic but you need to pay attention to the stitches as they form. This way you can catch mistakes as you go, not when you’re done and you stretch the pre blocked fabric to see how the pattern is forming.
Things I learned
When doing lace borders with different corner patterns, copy the corners separately and join them so you don’t get confused at the end of the last row and the beginning of the first row. I made a mistake there too but I'm letting it go. That reference would’ve helped me see the corner unit as a whole, not disconnected halves.
The Knitting Olympics has already started but I have to finish my niece's receiving blanket before the Guild's Show & Tell on Tuesday. I know how that sounds but my niece will arrive before the Guild's next Show & Tell and, well, it's my favorite part of guild. I love seeing what everyone is up to and, yes, I love showing and telling. I DO!
Besides pressure is good. And the outer border is a 16 row repeat with an undulating pattern ranging from 11 - 14 stitches. I only have to do it 64 times. By Tuesday evening. Then I can start on my Olympian challenge and my first commission of the year.
For those of you that are interested I am looking vigorously for a new job but, and I'm just saying, this not working thing really adds time to the day.