August 16, 2017

Autumn is reaching out, the air smells more crisp in the morning, even though the days are still hot. Some leaves are already falling, and I fell in love with the colorway “Hayloft” in anticipation of autumn, my favorite season. It reminds me of the colors of lichen and moss in the Highlands of Scotland - and though I’ve never been there (yet), it’s a dream place to travel to for me.

August 18, 2017

For a start, I fiddled with some (as it turned out) minor problems, due to some misunderstandings I had, being inexperienced with lace patterns. The pattern is easy though, once you get the hang of it. The pattern description is flawless as well (as always from Jared Flood).
Knitting from a proper chart is so much easier (for me) than following only written instructions (in Europe /Germany you don’t have such detailed instructions as common in english patterns, so I’m used to working from charts).

Started the first rows with needles US 9 (5.5mm) as recommended but didn’t like the result - too loose, looked somehow messy. Frogged it and re-started with US 8 (5mm) and stayed with it.

Some things to remember:

• Chart reading: Start with row 1 (RS) reading from right to left, then read row 2 (WS) from left to right etc… all odd-numbered rows are on the RS and are read from right to left, all even-numbered rows are on the WS and are read from left to right.
• Marking charts: Color first and last row of pattern repeats in the printout of your charts. Makes it easier to follow. Use post-it’s (sticky notes) to hide rows you already knit. I always have to look at the charts for every row, can’t memorize this stuff. :)
• Stitches: Check thoroughly, how stitches are knit on RS and WS. For example, stitches shown in the chart as knit stitches in the WS row are knit as purl stitches.
• Use long-tail cast-on as mentioned in pattern, as it’s stretchy and project needs to be heavily blocked when finished
• Border: First and last three stitches of every row are always knit stitches (= border)
• WS rows: are always purl stitches, no lace pattern on the WS rows. Yay! :)
• Don’t use stitch markers: I wanted to mark the pattern repeat, but doesn’t work, as the placement of the first stitch of the pattern repeat travels. Check yarnovers instead to see if you are still following the pattern or not.
• Pattern repeats: The first stitch of the pattern repeat (Double decrease) starts with one stitch before the actual stitch placement.

Don’t forget: The first stitch after the yarnovers (which is the stitch that “anchors” the yarnovers) has to be counted as the first of the knit stitches which follow the yarnovers (for example: yo, k3). It’s not counted in addition to those following stitches (not: yo, k1, k3). That’s a personal mistake I sometimes make and took me some time to find out. Ahem. ;)

August 27, 2017

What a genius pattern. And going so quickly, even though I’m just knitting in my evenings a few rows. I’m already at the second repeat of Chart C (of 8) and have done Chart A and B in only ~10 days (that’s quick for my knitting speed).

The stitches are really easy to do, no fancy lace things, just knit, purl, yo’s, k2tog, ssk and a very easy double decrease. But the pattern is so cleverly written that it almost feels as if you are painting with your needles… and the leaves are almost organically growing. Very much fun, not boring and perfect pattern. :)

September 16, 2017

Finished the first part of the stole. Chart C took much longer than the other two Charts, but is an easy knit despite the repetitive pattern. Still need to look for every RS row on the chart though. :)

Started the second skein on row 29 of Chart B and the third skein on row 7 of Chart C, 7th repeat of Chart.
Hope the wool will be enough…

Didn’t place stitches on a holder as instructed but left them on the cable of my knitpro needles and secured the cable ends with those thingies that come with knitpro cables. Just changed needles to a new cable to start second half of the stole.

November 04, 2017

Finished! The second half took somehow longer to knit, why ever. Grafting together as indicated is not as difficult as it sounds, but leaves a little “seam” nevertheless. I don’t know why the stole couldn’t be knit in one part, except that the designer wanted the pattern to be mirrored. But it’s not necessary in my opinion.

Blocking wet with blocking wires and pins. Very happy with result!