First up, sewing. My accidentally striped pinafore dress is looking a bit tired - hardly surprising as it's almost seven years old, and has had a lot of wear. I've made a start on a new one, using some black pinstripe wool which I bought for this purpose last year. It's all cut out, and the bodice is part done; it still needs the lining sewing down at the shoulders, understitching, and the front pleats tacked in place.
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| Pinafore bodice |
I never thought that I would have more knitting projects on the go than sewing projects, but here we are. My slate Wondrella is cast on, and is my project for when I want to chat while knitting or am too tired for anything complicated. I have knitted the whole body, including front cables, up to the point of splitting of the fronts and back. I decided to knit the back before doing the fronts, although I can't now remember my logic for this! All the armscye shaping is done, so it's just a case of stocking stitch for another 50 or so rows.
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| The whole thing |
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| Close-up on the right front |
My blue Dahlia shawl remains my 'concentration required' project. I am finding it easier as I become more familiar with the pattern, but the slightest bit of wandering mind and I can be sure that I'll make a mistake. I bought a lovely set of coloured stitch markers (in colourway 'Thistle') from Rebecca’s Room Knitting and use them to colour-code the different sections of the pattern; they are perfect for reminding me where I am in a row.
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| Markers is shades of silver, purple and green |
In terms of rows, I am more than halfway through. However because each row increases by four stitches, in terms of total number of stitches I am only around 30% done.
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| One side, partially stretched out |
Occasionally I stop halfway through a row, just to get an idea of what the finished shawl might look like. Although I can't really tell now, as I can no longer space the stitches out properly. I will definitely need some more blocking mats to fit it all on!
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| Trying to show the whole thing |
And that is where things are currently up to.
My top tip for keeping track of lace charts (and color charts, or any chart really!) is painter's tape or a sticky note. I put it just above the line I'm on, so if I walk away from the piece for a few hours or days, I can come right back to where I was, and the tape is easily repositionable. You can put them on either side of the line you are on if the chart is particularly large, but I find most charts are narrow enough that one above is fine. Sticky notes tend to lose their sticky as you move them, which is why I like painter's tape for larger charts (Saari Norland's Poet was a huge/wide chart and took ages, so I really needed that tape!) It also makes these projects more portable. Hope that is helpful!
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of something that I had for following cross stitch charts. It's a sheet of metal with magnetic strips - you place the chart on the sheet, and put the strips round the section you are working from. Amazingly, it was where I thought I'd stored it (!), and it's perfect for the job - thanks for the tip!
DeleteThe Poet is lovely, but that looks like a lot of chart to follow.