Or at least that’s what it looked like.

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a way to return via my wardrobe.

Personally, I like working from charts, but I recognise that lots of people find them difficult to follow and prefer written directions. Consequently I try to provide both options in my patterns. Sometimes people who don’t like charts simply haven’t learnt to use them and in that case I’d certainly recommend giving them a shot, even if you conclude that you prefer working from the words, charts can be a valuable aid.

Let’s look at an example using a fairly simple, traditional lace pattern, the one I used in the cuffs of the Veyla pattern. First, here are the written directions (abbreviations):

Row 1: (k1, yo) twice, k1, ssk, p1, k2tog, k1, p1, k1, ssk, p1, k2tog, (k1, yo) twice, k1.

Row 2: p6, (k1, p2) twice, p1, k6.

Row 3: k1, yo, k3, yo, ssk, p1, k2tog, p1, ssk, p1, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, k1.

Row 4: p9, k1, p9.

Row 5: k1, yo, k5, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, p1, k3tog, yo, k5, yo, k1.

Row 6: p to end.

Row 7: k1, yo, k3, p1, k2tog, k1, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, yo, k1, ssk, p1, k3, yo, k1.

Row 8: p5, k1, p7, k1, p5.

To some people that block of text with no visual clues will be impossible to keep track of, but for plenty of others it’s easy to read and follow the rhythm of and that’s fine, different brains work in very different ways. The problem is that however much written directions suit the way you think that there is nothing in that block of text to suggest how the pattern is actually supposed to look.

Of course a pattern usually contains some sort of photo of the stitch pattern, but this isn’t always close up and clear enough to see exactly what’s going on with every single stitch. Additionally, as anyone who has ever frogged lace without a life line knows it can be difficult to see clearly which stitches belong to which row.

Ideally you’ll be able to follow the written directions and trust that everything will come out perfectly. Which is a nice idea, but in practice the phone rings and you forget where you were or you get too into what you think is the rythym of the pattern and miss a change. Mistakes happen, what matters is that you can identify and fix them and that’s where having an idea of how the pattern should look and how everything lines up can help.

For example, on this swatch (there are 3 stitches worked in garter stitch on either side to keep things flat) I was knitting along happily until I got to the end of row 5 and realised that I was short a stitch to complete the row. First I’d presume that I’d made a mistake earlier in the row, so I’d carefully check each stitch against the directions. If I couldn’t find a problem I’d probably assume that I just wasn’t seeing it and try re-knitting the row. Still a stitch short I’d have to conclude that the problem was in the previous right side row so I’d take that out and re-knit it, possibly realising in the process that I’d missed out the 1st yarn over in row 3. Problem fixed, but with far too much frustration. In a little swatch like this that process isn’t a huge deal, but on something like a shawl it can be impossibly frustrating, especially if you have to go through it more than once.

Eventually you might have knit enough repeats to be able to read what you’ve already knit and see how everything lines up, but it’s nice to be able to do that from the beginning. If I’d studied the chart a little before beginning to work from the written directions I’d have been able to learn some valuable information that would have made spotting where I’d missed a yarn over a lot easier. If you’re not familiar with charts – read the odd, right side rows from right to left and the even rows from left to right, scroll down for the key.

I’ve shaded in the yarn overs in the chart to highlight how easy it is to see at a glance how they line up. The pink ones form columns at either side and the green ones create diagonal lines, sloping in towards the centre. You can also see at a glance the lines created by the decreases and purl stitches.

Here I’ve shaded the yarn over I missed in yellow so you can see that with the knowledge provided by the chart it would have been a lot easier to find the mistake in my knitting, realise I’d made a mistake earlier and possibly have seen the problem just after making the mistake. Which makes it a lot easier to fix!

This is an interesting example, because it’s not the easiest type of chart to read at a glance and see what’s going to line up. In the simplest lace patterns every yarn over will be preceded or followed by it’s corresponding decrease before another yarn over is worked and you can expect that your knitting will line up exactly like the chart. Here’s an example of a chart like that.

In the main example the yarn overs and decreases are balanced on every row (there are equal numbers of stitches increased and decreased so the overall stitch count doesn’t change), but they don’t alternate. In most of the rows a set of yarn overs are worked before a set of decreases, which means that you’re increasing stitches in one section and decreasing them in another and that means that not everything in your knitting will stack up visually exactly the way it does in the chart.

This isn’t a huge problem though, it just means that you need to work a little harder to pick out the key information that will help you to read your knitting and keep track of whether it looks right. It’s pretty clear that the chart is symmetrical so you can expect the central purl stitches to be stacked on top of each other and for the pattern to be mirrored on either side. There is clearly only one edge stitch next to the outer columns of yarn overs so those must also be stacked on top of each other.

Sometimes, when the decreases and yarn overs in a chart are grouped separately the designer will use a no stitch symbol to make it easier to read, these are often used in patterns where the stitch count varies too. Of course they could just subtract and add those stitches at the edge of the chart, but putting them within the pattern allows it to be charted in the way that most closely matches how the actual knitting will look. You just ignore those “no stitches” while knitting, but they’re there to make your life easier. You can see this in action in this segment from the Snapdragon Tam chart, they’re used to keep everything lined up in the chart the way it will be in the knitting.

I hope that helps to show how charts can be a useful tool, whether or not you find you prefer them to written directions. They can help you to read your knitting and see whether everything is in the right place, important skills for a “thinking knitter”.

Many knitters like to work from both the written directions and the charts, like Mary-Heather who says – “I usually get going with written instructions for the first repeat (matching with the chart visually) then after that I use the chart”. In fact, while the chart can give you a good visual overview, the written directions can be helpful for learning the rhythms of the pattern, the (yo, k2tog) twice stuff, and for setting everything up in the right place, since the stitch counts are given for each bit.

Abbreviations

Key:

Hello – it’s Sarah here!  Since I started working for Ysolda a few weeks ago she’s been asking me to to hijack her blog every so often to show you what I’m knitting.  I seem to be getting through quite a lot of projects at the moment, mainly because lots of them are small and unlike Ysolda, I don’t talk with my hands!

I’m doing lots of Christmas knitting, but I managed to knit myself this cute hat and mitts set, Cayuga by Connie Chang Chinchio knit in Berroco Ultra Alpaca in just a couple of days.  I’ve decided that I need more of my knitwear to match so picked up some yarn on the tour to knit these as soon as the pattern was released.  The band of the hat is knit back and forth and then stitches picked up along the edge to knit the top, which means I could measure it exactly to fit and as a result it’s lovely and snug, and not likely to fly off on my dog walking adventures.  I love the twig and berries pattern round the brim of the hat and it works its way beautifully up the edge of the mittens too.

Next up is some Snapdragon Flip-tops to match my gorgeous hat and em…Ysolda’s Christmas present!

It finally stopped pouring long enough to take photos of my shorter, fingerless version of the Farinelli opera gloves I designed for the winter issue of Twist Collective. I really love the drama of the original version, and I do think they can fit surprisingly well into a more casual wardrobe (see Sarah’s version below), but I use my hands a lot and thought I’d get more wear out of a fingerless version. The shorter length is easier to wear over long sleeves and since it’s freezing here currently, it’s pretty obvious from the above photo just how cold I was, layering possibilities are an important consideration. Coming to just below the elbow, they’re still perfectly long and elegant. Of course there are other possible combinations, I’d love to see a full length fingerless version for example.

Modifications:

Cast on and work rnds 1-31 according to the pattern. Since this version is shorter but begins with the same number of sts (due to the large repeat of the edging pattern) you’ll need to work the decreases more rapidly. To do this work 3 repeats of the sleeve chart working the dec rnd (rnd 48) on rnds 8 and 16 of each repeat. If you’re making the smaller size all of the required decs will now have been worked, work 1 more repeat of the sleeve chart without any shaping. For the larger size you need to work 1 more set of decs so work those on rnd 8 of this final repeat.

After working the last plain k rnd of the final rep proceed to rnd 161 of the pattern. Work rnds 162-184 according to the pattern. Instead of working 8 (10) rnds in patt work 21 rnds (or until the hand is about 1/4″ shorter than desired length, p1 rnd, k1 rnd, p1 rnd. Bind off loosely.

Begin thumb according to pattern but k only 9 rnds, p1 rnd, k1 rnd, p1 rnd. Bind off loosely.

I hope that’s all clear, obviously it will make more sense with the original pattern in front of you.

Sarah demonstrating that you don’t need to be dressed for the opera to make the full length, fingered version work.

Mine are knit in Malabrigo Sock and Sarah’s are in Yarn Yard Clan.

I’ll be signing books and hanging out at Scotland’s newest yarn shop this Saturday. If you’re anywhere near Gourock do come along to Once a Sheep (cute name!) between 1 and 4pm. The shop is so new that they don’t have a website up yet, but you can find it at 60 Kempock Street and they also have a Ravelry group. I’m reliably informed that there will be cake too.

I’m having so much fun working on my second cushion cover, this one’s a little more elaborate, but I’m really pleased with it so far.

With the book done and the tour over I’m trying to take a little time to settle and get to some rather neglected things before jumping into the next big project. Mostly that means cleaning and organising, but I took a little break from that this evening to replace one of my boring cushion covers with something a little more interesting, and which crucially does not clash horribly with Nathaniel the way the old one did. I have plans for a matchy but not the same partner for it.

A little distraction from the cleaning, that did at least help declutter something. The fair isle is from a jumper my aunt knit (by machine) years ago. My mum gave it to me a while ago, since it had shrunk to sort of my size. In order to wear it I’d have had to change the too tight neckline and I put it away thinking I might do that someday. However, when I pulled it out during the aforementioned decluttering I noticed a couple of holes and that the felting wasn’t particularly even. Not really worth the effort of trying to make a wearable garment, but perfect for using as a cushion cover. The simplest thing to do would have been to just sew across the bottom and below the armholes, but that wouldn’t have been quite big enough for my cushion. So I pieced a couple of strips of the jumper together with some wool suiting fabric, which has been hanging on my kitchen wall since I took the photo for the book cover. While it was up there I fell a little in love with the lettering along the selvedges, a functional label that would usually be hidden but that seems perfect in a room full of wool, even if all of the wool used in the cushion wasn’t exactly virgin.

On the last couple of days of the tour we managed to visit 3 different places and met lots of great knitters and shops.

We drove from Bristol along misty, windy roads, made a stop for lunch and scones, and finally arrived in the charming village of Knighton, home of First 4 Yarns. They’ve just moved into this wonderful new space and I had the honour of cutting the yarn to open it, accompanied by the local mayor.
It’s such a fun, colourful, welcoming shop and the area looks like it would be lovely to spend some time in. We stayed at the George and Dragon Inn, which was just as cosy and friendly, even if they did mock my lack of a Scottish accent. The food looked great, although we only had room, after all of the cake the knitters plied us with, to try the soup.

During the tour I realised that Sarah knits an awful lot more than I do, especially when we were both working on the same project, hers grew much faster than mine even though she doesn’t seem to knit faster. These photos clearly illustrate some of the reasons for this. Firstly, I talk with my hands, and I do it while knitting, which means putting the knitting down. Secondly, Sarah’s always knitting.

We left bright and early, well early at least, and drove to Nottingham. We visited a teeny little yarn store, really a market stall, but we were delightfully surprised by what a great job the owner Liz is doing with limited resources and how many knitters she managed to get together on a weekday lunchtime.

As soon as we were done in Nottingham we left for Leeds, where we arrived at our final stop, Baa Ram Ewe more or less when we said we would.

I got to cut the Icord this time, to open their new workshop space. So many knitters crowded in that I couldn’t fit them all in this shot!

Books were signed, samples were tried on and I even managed to squeeze in a little knitting.
We also had fun browsing the great selection of yarns, Verity’s worked hard to combine well known brands alongside more unusual, local yarns that showcase the vibrancy and rich heritage of Yorkshire’s wool producers.

One thing that we loved about all three of these shops is how welcoming they seemed to be to all of the knitters in their community. I love luxury yarns and workhorse natural fibres, but also appreciate that knitters have all sorts of perfectly valid reasons for choosing different yarns and different price points, so it was nice to see shops catering both to different knitters and the varying tastes of individual knitters (because sometimes acrylic is the right yarn and sometimes cashmere is) and making an effort to reach out to their communities and make everyone feel welcome.

Soup’s made, bread’s baked and my plain and simple travelling socks are also perfect knitting for settling back in. I have lots of pictures from the last few days of the tour, where we visited some wonderful places and met a lot of fantastic knitters. But first I’m going to sleep – in my own bed.