Having ordered the Edwardian Lace Shawl pattern on a spur-of-the-moment whim (mostly due to my current love-affair with KSH), I then felt a little anxious that it would be beyond my knitting capabilities. I needn't have worried, as I soon found there were no borders to be knitted separately and then grafted on, or anything yuk like that. However, it did require a provisional cast on, which I'd been avoiding for ages, by ignoring any pattern that needed one. Again, I needn't have avoided these provisional cast ons, as there is nothing complicated about them at all (well, not the way I did it, anyway). So, having joined in my KSH, I got down to it. At row five I found there were more stitches left than there should be, at the end of the row. I checked and checked again, and just couldn't find where I'd made the error. Started unknitting it stitch by stitch, messed up, and frogged the lot. It's not that easy undoing lace knitted in black sticky KSH, I can tell you (although I'm quite good at it now). Started again, got to row five and found the same problem again. At this point I was suspicious that there was a problem with the pattern. Never mind, Heirloom Knitting told me what the row should read and I carried on. Then I did my maths for rows 7, 9 and 11 and found they were incorrect, too. Of course, H.K. gave me the correct instructions again and I carried on. Only to find that the corrected instructions for one of the rows was.......incorrect. Heirloom Knitting were very helpful and quite apologetic but it did make my first proper lace-knitting much trickier. I must add that Sharon at HK was very helpful with advice about picking up stitches from the provisional cast-on, as well. The company does offer support with knitting up their patterns.
Anyway, the pattern is very easy - I've come to realise that it's not knitting lace that's difficult - it's just making sure you don't mess up your rhythm half way through a row and miss out a YO or a K2tog or a Sl1 K2tog psso etc.etc. That's the only difficult bit - not going wrong! I'm counting every stitch after knitting every single row, as it's best to find any errors immediately. There have been hardly any and I've completed seven pattern repeats now.
After knitting fourteen repeats I have to pick up the stitches from the provisional cast on and start again for the other half of the shawl. I will practise that on some scrap yarn first, to make sure I'm picking up the correct loops. Imagine if it all went wrong at that stage. Shudder.........
I'm hoping this will be a nice big shawl. It should be about 72" by 19". I think mine might be even larger than that. We'll see. I'll let you know how it goes on.
Lace, eh? And in black, too -- that's supposed to be maddening. It looks lovely!
ReplyDeleteI have read that KSH should be binned rather than ripped, so you're unusual in your patience. And I agree: you shouldn't have to check the stitch count for every row of a pattern you've just bought, but I have a hunch that there are people who do simply to avoid what you've had to undo.
Lubbly.
ReplyDeleteI don't think KSH is as bad as I would have expected to tink/frog - did it quite a bit on river to start with. Guess the silk helps.
Love the lace pattern, very funky in the black KSH. It would have irritated me no end to find all those errors in stitch counts. There isn't any excuse for it being *that* wrong! Especially as it's a paid-for pattern and should have been thoroughly proof read and test knitted.
ReplyDeleteIt looks amazing so far. The black really makes the pattern stand out.
ReplyDeleteYay for black shawls! Yours is looking great so far. I have pain in my heart for you thinking about the incorrect directions. It's hard enough keeping track of your lace when the pattern is correct. You make me want to try KSH - is it really that nice?
ReplyDeleteyou brave woman you! for those very reasons I have been avoiding lace, although I have done a provisional cast on (with crochet chain) before, and found it easy enough. starting with black KSH is double brave.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly shouldn't have to count every row. they should have published a correction for the pattern. still when it is well and done and blocked, it will be gorgeous.
Alice -- a word for you that I didn't learn about til much later, suffering through my lace: lifeline. Have you tried one? It has radically changed my feeling about my lace (Kid Seta is just like KSH) from one of dread to one of, "OK, I can do this."
ReplyDeleteGet a scrap piece of yarn, and when you've got a row correct, thread it through the stitches on the needle. That way, if you drop a stitch, or make a mistake, you can rip (well, untangle...) the mohair back to the correct row, but not go any further. (You might have seen the pink yarn through my blue lace). Pls. let me know if you need more help with this: adamsdebra at sbcglobal dot net.
Your lace looks fabulous so far! I'm sorry that it's been so painful (suffering for your art, right?). And thanks for the comments on my blog.
How beautiful, and how annoying! Frogging KSH is evil :( You're right, lace isn't hard as long as you concentrate enough to give yourself a migraine, lol. I haven't done much of it as I'm not good at concentrating.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, how frustrating, that is absolutely infuriating. Have to say though that it is looking absolutely beautiful, I haven't used KSH in black yet but have a fancy for some sort of lacy cardy for winter.
ReplyDeleteJeez, that's bad. Not your shawl - it looks lovely, but the mistakes!
ReplyDeleteIt is one of my pet hates at the momemt ; the amount of patterns that are either not proof read or just wrong , and they charge money for them ?
ReplyDeleteYour shawl will be fab and I knew you could do it. I agree with Cherry Rolfe in, if its a complicated lace I just can't talk; some might say that's a blessing !!
How annoying, but it sounds as if you're enjoying yourself now. And I suppose there must have been some satisfaction in knowing it was their mistake, not yours? Debby's lifeline idea sounds a really good one. A bit like backing up your computer.
ReplyDeleteIt's a real bugbear of mine when there are mistakes in a pattern that you've paid a lot of money for. The shawl is looking great, so well done for sticking with it, but it's such a shame when you have to keep checking for errors.
ReplyDeleteHI!! Nice shawl... is Heirloom Knitting anything to do with Sharon Miller?
ReplyDeleteI found your email while on a library computer but I can't get back in hotmail on my mother's steam-powered laptop. (Or gmail... OR my internet banking............grrr)
I don't think I have the stamina to try blogging from it.
I hope you're having a good summer..
Fi
So, you're still with us then! How lovely to hear from you. After I sent that e-mail it occurred to me that you wouldn't get it if you still had problems. Duh.
ReplyDeleteYes, Sharon Miller is Heirloom Knitting, I think. Who is she then?
When are you hoping to have this crap sorted? Will you ever see this message, or has the portal to our world closed on you already?