Only for Lies

My bobbin lace teacher Lies (Lee-sis, only one syllable, not untruths!), was going to knit a black Myrtle Leaf shawl from the book, Victorian Lace Today.   But the black knitting was beyond what her eyes could do...it is barely within what mine can do, right now.   So, I agreed to knit it for her.

What a challenge!   The pattern isn't that hard, although there is patterning on the wrong side rows.

First, I knit this, all cast on, following e chart, it is going fine, right?

Wrong.   Not at all fine.  These are supposed to be leaf motifs, not sliced in half thingees.

So I finally ripped, thinking I had screwed up something in the previous repeat, and tried again, with a swatch.

Carefully followed the chart, I know I was doing it right, right? Still, wrong. See? One complete leaf, and one split. Checked for errata, and it made no sense, I must have the reprinted version, corrected, since the missing / mentioned were in my copy.

So I looked, and I looked, and I analyzed the chart, and I thought about suggesting I do a different pattern....but, not be able to knit a pattern? Me? No...gotta figure this out...there are plenty of lovely, correct, finished shawls posted on Ravelry, it is clearly possible!

Finally, the light dawned...there is no way the chart as printed will work. In the first repeat that / must be plain knits, and the subsequent repeats have it as the decrease! That would match the offset leaves, that looked right! That must be what the errata I wasn't understanding meant!

Once I have done a good swatch, I will make a comment on the pattern in the Ravelry database, In case others have the same issue.

Edited to add, I matched the dec that I changed to a knit with a dec at the other end, and that matches the pattern in my mom's book, which is a later edition.

Organizing my life

I am inventorying my stash, fabric and yarn.  It is all getting stored in labeled bins, more or less by type, and I am writing down each item that goes into a bin.   Since the notepad in question was 1) getting trashed, 2) constantly disappearing, as I kept using it in different places, and 3) not searchable, I typed it all into a spreadsheet.

You would think this was straightforward.   Nope.  Spreadsheets hate me.   Way back when, I could work spreadsheets and bend them to my will just fine.   Not any more.   But, I have a Champion!   He came to my rescue, and beat that spreadsheet into submission.

The final score was:
Numbers:                           1
Colleen:                            .5
Abe (aka Champion):        3

I got .5 for figuring out (by accident...lucky shot!) that dragging a static filled field bigger meant you didn't have to paste the label in them all of them, it just happened.

Now, my yarn spreadsheet is labeled by weight/type of yarn, box letter, number of skeins, and name of yarn.  I may go back and add in ball weight and yardages.

I need to fix the fabric spread sheet to reflect the box name and fabric content more elegantly, but the info is all there.

Now, I can search, I can even sort by weight.   If I go back and break it out, I could sort by fiber, but I can search by it, already.

Now....I just need to remember to delete the yarn from the spreadsheet when I take it out of the box!

notes from camp

Now that I am over the plague, with only some coughing left, I'm entering my inventory into a spreadsheet, but first, I need to save the notes on the pad I used.

So, here is a set of instructions from Knitting Camp, that I think is for the centered eyelet.

row -1 (ws):  double yo in the stitch above which you want the eyelet
row 1 (RS):  work to 1 before center
                     slip 1, insert needle p-wise into next stitch.  PSSO, partially slipped stitch
                     yo, k2 tog *next stitch and partial stitch)
row 2 (ws): K into Row below

so that I don't forget how to do this again, I'm putting it here, so I can find it!