Tuesday, June 06, 2006

79 stitches, but who's counting


I'm starting my way into a Flower Basket Shawl. I'm still not 100% sure that size 6 needles and sock weight yarn are the perfect match, but I'm sure it'll be fine in the end. I had to make myself a spreadsheet, just like I did for charlotte, to remind myself how many stitches I'll have at the end of each repeat. I have serious short term memory problems with lace knitting. For example, tonight, after knitting row 3 of the repeat, I did my purl row, and dutifully restarted row 3 as if I hadn't just finished it (and I really had forgotten that I'd just finished it). I'm pretty obsessive about checking my progress as I go, plus with a symmetrical piece, it's fairly easy to tell when you've messed up, as you either knit right past your middle stitch, or you haven't quite gotten to it, as you think you've finished one side. So, I now have an excel that has computed how many stitches I'll have at the end of each row, so as I count back as I purl, I'll know exactly which row of which repeat I'm on. This should be easier than it is, but for me, it just isn't. It is a nice pattern, though.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I knit a FBS some time ago using #6 needles and fingering weight yarn. I upsized to #7 with no visible change to the stitches, mainly because I wanted the shawl bigger. Plus, I had ~600 yards of yarn. Make sure you have enough yarn!

- MJ