Progress Report - Colonnade Shawl

Finished and blocking is the progress report on the Colonnade Shawl.

I am pleased with how it looks. There are a couple mistakes in it however that will be good for demonstration purposes.

This was a really fun knit and I may add this to my list of gift possible patterns for the future. I want to try the Little Colonnade later when I have some time.

I hope everyone is seeing progress and successful completions of their favorite pursuits~!

Progress Report: Colonnade Shawl

Each time I try a lace pattern I learn something new. This time I am learning that it is very important to have the correct number of stitches in the right places before you start the lace sections.

I ripped out the Colonnade shawl again last night and started over. I think that I had forgotten one yarnover in the solid color section, so when I cheated, and just did a M1 I got off track because I did not move the stitch markers to signify the new set up of stitches.

Another note: the outside sections have one stitch more in them than do the inner sections between stitch markers. That number keeps growing but it is always one extra in the outer sections. That helps when you are looking for a mistake.

The other tool I think I will incorporate into this project is the use of a lifeline. I think I will run it through the last solid color row before the lace section begins so if I goof it up again I will not have to start from the beginning again. And I will count stitches on each row as I complete it so I know that it is correct. These little things do not take that much time and save time later.

Knitting is like having your own guru on the top of a mountain~!

Tinkering with a Pattern

I am notorious for tinkering with recipes and am finding that I do the same with knitting patterns. To clarify, with knitting patterns it is not about changing the design of the knit, it is about rewriting sections of a pattern to make it easier to read.

As an example, I am currently working on a fabulous pattern by Stephen West, the Colonnade Shawl, and found that reading the lace stitch section in paragraph format was causing me problems.

So, I copy, pasted, enlarged the text and unkinked it from the paragraph to read one line at a time for each section across the row of the lace technique. Now I am using my highlighter tape and a row counter to keep me on track.

The other adjustment I made to the pattern was in the beginning stockinette section. Once you have done the set up row, the next two rows are repeated for a certain number of even rows to create the shoulder section of the shawl. It ends with a knit right side row. The lace section begins with a knit right side row. Does anyone else see a problem here? So I just added one more of the wrong side row and, voila! it worked like a charm. It's the little things that make knitting fun.

I hope that everyone is finding fun and creative ways to spend their days~!