I’m 32 rows from finishing the Seraphim shawl, and I’ve definitely learned a few things. The biggest of those realizations is that my mind tends to wander to other things when I knit (which I knew, really I did), and that I have to force myself to pay attention to pattern repeats.
I’ve also realized that I have trouble seeing the developing pattern. I’m accustomed to working with color, and I can see the pattern as it grows there, but I can’t see it with lace until I’ve finished. Of course, that also means that I can’t tell when I’ve screwed up, either. Now, I know I could count stitches at the end of every row, but that’s cumbersome when the only needle you have in that size is too short to let you stretch the fabric out properly, and when you’re talking about somewhere in the vicinity of 300 stitches. (I’d tell you for sure but I have to get DH to hold one end of the needle every time I want to count, and I just haven’t done it.) I know I could also cram on a dozen stitch markers to mark the repeats, and maybe that’s what I need to do until I get more comfortable and more precise.
I also think I need to try a few small lace projects to help me learn to see what I’m doing. And yes, I know it will get easier as I work with this kind of knitting.
I know there are mistakes in the shawl, but I have no idea where they’re at. The question, of course, is whether they’ll show. If not, then this one will be a gift. If they do, then whether I attempt a fix or not will depend on how visible they are. And if they show, odds are that I’ll keep this one and do another—now that I know how it’s supposed to work—as a gift.
Sometimes I think patterns and first-time kniting experiences are rather like trial runs; they give you the chance to work all the bugs out and get the process down before you have to do it for real.
I’d give you a picture, but it doesn’t look much different than last time—especially since I can’t stretch it out enough to show the the lacework. You’ll just have to wait until I’ve finished the last chart and cast off.
Between now and then, however, I’ve also got to figure out where the heck I’m gonna block the thing! I increased the body of the shawl to make it a bit longer, and I’ve just realized that I may not have a flat surface big enough. Clever, eh?
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I’m a natural counter. I count *everything.* I also tend to get distracted when I’m counting. You know, the “27-28-29-40-41″ kind of distracted in counting.
If I can keep my counting units to 15 sts or so, I do lots better. This is fortunate, because many lace repeats are less than 15! So on the baby blanket pattern I’m now doing, there’s a 10 st repeat. I only have to count from 1 to 10, and remember that the yo’s happen on sts 2 and 4 on row one, 2 and 6 on row 3, etc.
Much easier than counting 300 sts.
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