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Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?
There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.
Today's Question: No question today.
If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.
I now declare this Check-In OPEN!
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The textile book is on the back burner until my fingertips heal. I had to push a really thin needle through thick fabric in the recent phase and it left little holes in the skin. But it's only temporary... or so I hope.
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Your poor fingers, they take such a beating! Hope you recover swiftly.
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Ouch! Sometimes it's necessary to put something to one side until certain parts have recovered enough to work on it again.
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Your poor fingers! Hope you heal quickly.
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Also, I have a question for the more experienced knitters. I love this beach cover-up but I've never done any lace knitting and I've also never read a chart pattern. I feel like this is a really complicated project that may be beyond me for now, but I have a holiday in October that I'd love to have this for. Does anyone have any suggestions for tackling something like this for the first time? Any recommendations for small starter projects I could use to work my way up to this?
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Yes, that's quite a complicated lace pattern, especially for someone who hasn't done lace knitting before. The chart doesn't look too difficult to follow, but English clearly isn't the designer's first language as the written instruction are confusing... Might take a bit of deciphering.
Still, speaking from experience, if you love a pattern enough you'll figure it out. My advice would be to try the stitch patterns first using some scrap yarn so you can figure out how to do the different stitches. You will need to keep track of rows. My biggest advice is to print out two copies of the pattern. One you can mark rows off on as you work (use pencil) and one kept clean just in case you need to refer back to it. Things happen, mistakes get made, lol.
Good luck! I've downloaded the pattern myself, so if you need help figuring it out we can brainstorm.
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My advice is about avoiding mistakes. If I made an error, it was so challenging to undo the knitting (because of the increases and decreases). In an attempt to not make errors I put markers every 10 or 12 stitches, or whatever number made sense with the pattern repeat. Then I would stop after each marker & check my work by doing two things. First, I would count to make sure I had the right number of stitches. Lace knitting involves adding and subtracting stitches & I sometimes messed up this math. The second part of my double checking involved really looking at what I was doing. Did it look right? While knitting lace, the work is wriggly & sometimes looks like a mess, so I would carefully stretch out the stitches to see the pattern. All this meant it went more slowly than 'regular' knitting. But it was so worth it.
It takes a bit of faith to believe that it will work. It always amazed me that it did.
A lot of lace patterns are written using charts. I found this confusing at first but got used to it. I just had to take it slowly.
Oh - also - I found it better to knit at a table rather than just hold the lace on my lap. I think this was because I needed to look at it so carefully. And a table gave me a way to stretch it out a bit.
Knitting lace is like knitting cables: looks complicated and intimidating but it's just one stitch at a time. I hope you try it. Or at least try the lace pattern and see if you can enjoy doing it.
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My first quibble with it: there's no gauge given! Now, if this was a shawl I wouldn't worry about that too much, but given that it's a cover-up that's meant to fit, it really should have gauge listed. It would suck to do all that work and then discover it's too big or too small. So, you'll need to work a gauge swatch and do some math to figure out if it will fit you.
Example: if I get a gauge of 18 stitches per 4": 4/18 = 0.222: multiply 0.222 by the number of stitches in the largest row in the pattern (it's late, and I am too tired to figure that out right now): your answer will be the number of inches around in the hip region, if I'm reading the pattern correctly.
Second quibble with the pattern: doesn't tell you how to knit straps. So you'll need to figure that out.
The good news is that there aren't any really tricky stitches in the pattern; it uses standard increases and decreases. In case you don't know, the SKP (slip one, knit one, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch) is interchangeable with the common SSK, so use whichever you're most comfortable with. I prefer SSK myself, but I've done both.
Agree with an above commenter who said to use stitch markers. I'd also use lifelines. If you're brand new to lace, there's no shame in putting lifelines every 6-10 rows.
I am not really familiar with Shetland lace (the designer says it is knit in that style) but if I'm reading the chart correctly, this is knit flat in garter lace (someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong!) and is also known as "true lace" because it's got decreases/increases every row; there is no resting rows where you simply knit or purl. That does make it a bit trickier. But! I am very much a proponent of "if you really want it, then try it!" I consider myself an advanced knitter, and that's because I have been brave with trying new things.
One last thing: the designer used cotton. If you have never used cotton before... well, it doesn't have much give, so it can be painful to knit with. Give yourself plenty of time to work on it, so your hands can have breaks.
I'm cheering you on! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have, I love helping people out.
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(I am too much of a beginner knitter to comment on the cover-up)
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We're in the same boat, no worries :D
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* Part 1: FINISHED! And it looks awesome.
* Part 2: Half-finished. Not too keen on the first half, but the second half is going better.
* Part 3: In the works, and will knit more tonight/tomorrow.
Re: part 2: it's stranded colorwork which I am NOT good on. I fear on the first half my floats weren't long enough, boo. The second half uses a different stranded colorwork pattern, and has even longer floats, which scared me enough that I looked up a tutorial on Ladderback Jacquard. For those not in the know: it's a technique that allows for tidier floats by adding stitches that will only be at the back of the work. It's not nearly as hard as I thought it might be! The problem is just reading my chart correctly for the colorwork, LOL. I got too eager to work the jacquard and forgot to work my chart.
It's the 23rd tonight. This entry is due on the 31st, but that's Japanese time so really, I have until sometime on the 30th. Can I finish? LET'S HOPE SO! Off to knit for a bit before I turn in for the evening.
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