The Wrap Bites the Dust

I just finished ripping and rewinding the yarn for Project 9: Wrap in Striped Pattern :-(

For some reason, I couldn't successfully knit a section of the "easy" lace pattern without making at least one error, which usually involved dropping a stitch.  And the error couldn't be repaired without ripping out the entire section and reknitting it.

I didn't love this pattern enough to reknit it multiple times.  So the search for a pretty lace shawl pattern continues.  And a new Project 9 will commence shortly.

Project 9: Wrap in Striped Pattern One Repeat Finished

I have one repeat done of the 'stripe' section and the 'flower' section of my wrap.

The flowers are formed of little purl bobbles of 5 stitches.  Cute.

These two band are now repeated until the center section forms a square.  Which is going to be fairly large, about 24" square.  Then a pretty lace border is added all around the square.

I think I'll keep going on this, the pattern is a bit unusual and I like it.  I'll get some clearer pictures when I have a few repeats done.

Project 9: Wrap in Striped Pattern

Here's section one of the shawl (the "striped" part).  A simple pattern of yo, slip 1 purlwise, k2tog. for 27 rows. 

You'd think that would be a no-brainer.  But I had to redo this section 3 times before I got those 27 rows finished.  First time I misread the instructions and stuck a "knit plain" row in between the pattern rows.  Second time I dropped a stitch AND forgot what I was doing in the middle of a row (I  was watching "Game of Thrones" and was SO upset about a completely unexpected plot development I had to put my knitting down.  When I picked it up again, I forgot there were no "knit plain" rows, and knit one row).  Third attempt I again dropped a stitch, but was able to pick it up with a crochet hook and finish the section.

The next section looks like it has some flowers formed with bobbles of some sort.  I'm having a hard time creating a chart for this section.  Maybe some knitting patterns are just easier in written form rather than creating a lace chart.  "Modern" knitters do like charts though, so I'm going to try to create one that isn't too confusing.  We shall see.

Once I've knit a "flower" section, I should be able to decide if this is the shawl I want to make using my pretty Madelinetosh Lace yarn in "William Morris" colorway.  I'm still on the fence.  I also need to choose something to take on my trip to Portland this weekend.  Pia and I are meeting Susan, Pam and Tate! for the Rose City Yarn Crawl, 19 yarn shops in one fabulous weekend!

I'm contemplating a really cool pair of plaid knee stockings that are in one of the Weldon's books.  If I can find it and chart the color pattern today, I think I will take that with me.  If not, lace shawl goes.

Project 9: Wrap in Striped Pattern with Round Border

I've been searching for a shawl to knit.  It's proven rather difficult to find the right one.  Jane Sowerby's book Victorian Lace Today includes many of the patterns I like from the earlier Weldon's publications.  I have a single issue of Weldon's Practical Knitter, Sixty-Second Series (published c. 1910) which is subtitled "How to Knit Fancy Stitches, Shawls, etc".  I found this pattern which has potential:

The shawl is made by knitting the "centre" square, then picking up the border stitches and knitting the edging around the outside.  I like this better than knitting the four border pieces separately and sewing them on, which many of the Weldon's patterns require.

However, this project is fighting me every step of the way.  First, I had trouble winding the skein of Madelinetosh Lace yarn.  My trusty old yarn winder is getting a little cranky.  I wound the yarn so tightly that I couldn't pull it off the ball winder, so I had to hand-wind a ball off the winder.  Blech.

Next problem is charting this pattern.  It's going to take some thought.  The "stripes" section is pretty simple, just columns of yarn over/knit two together (but even that is causing trouble, see below).  The tricky bit comes with the bobble "flowers" in the 2nd section.  I'm working on charting this in a non-confusing way.  So far, it's confusing :-)

And today's problem: I cast on the 198 stitches for the stripes section.  Knit 13 rows.  And realized I was doing it wrong.  I read the instructions as knit 1 row, work the yo/k2tog pattern on the 2nd row, and repeat for 28 rows.  Nope.  I am supposed to work that lace pattern EVERY row for 28 rows.  So back to the beginning and casting on those 198 stitches AGAIN.

To be continued.