Saturday, January 26, 2013

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?

photo

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? photo 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.

1 comment:

Nan said...

Glad I had the book and could help. :)