Saturday, January 26, 2008

Travelling Twisted Stitches -- Breakthrough!

An exciting moment! I have finished the back of the Clock Vest. Although the pattern appears tremendously complicated, it's easier than it looks. The bits that angle up to either side of the center are the same Charts A and B from the front pieces. And Chart D – the center -- is just seed stitch. Every four rows you trade off the knits and purls, increase one stitch on each side of the center panel, and decrease one stitch on the outside of Charts A and B.



But even more thrilling is the progress I am making in reading and remembering the chart lines. There appear to be certain "rules of the road" with this stuff. For instance knit stitches always go in front of purl stitches. And after a while some lines have become so familiar that I only have to check the chart once to get across the 13 stitches ( itsy bitsy baby steps here).

See, if you look at the pattern right above the yellow line, that's "two vee's and a left slant." Not exactly a stroke of genius on my part, but consider the mental process it replaces – "a purl behind a knit, a knit in front of a purl, a purl behind a knit, a knit in front of a purl, two knits in front of a purl."


And below the blue line we have "two A's and a right slant". Whoooohooo!


It's exciting to get the hang of a new technique.

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