Taking It Out at Lunch rather than Take Out at Lunch
Lunch Time Ripping
My “as yet unnamed lace scarf” pattern was humming along. Although the pattern is 20 rows, I almost had it memorized. Almost, because I obviously I don’t and I made a pretty big mistake (yes, I did have the pattern available – just knit something else). Today, I ate my salad at my desk then ripped back the knitting I completed on Sunday.
Sunday a close family friend graduated from college and Saturday there was a graduation party. Of course I brought my scarf to knit. A more logical choice would have been to grab one of my “easy” knit projects that requires no concentration. Why? Because, following the chart and knitting lace didn’t quite go with talking and catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while.
My design is based on a late 1800’s antique shawl pattern. I deciphered the terms and symbols and figured out what the original stitches were. Then I used excel to charted it. Charting helped me to determine if my pattern was somewhat like the picture in the pamphlet. My vision for the scarf is a center lace pattern with a fairly simple knitted-on edging. Think romantic style without a lot of frills. I haven’t quite figured out the edging pattern, but I will. Similar to a Shetland shawl, I am knitting a yarn-over at the beginning of each row. Because I don’t want the stitches to change I follow the yarn-over with a knit two together. With this technique, little loops form at the edges that will be easy to pick-up. The loops also are a nice design element. Because Ito Silk is not stretchy, picking up stitches might otherwise be a bit tight (as I found out in my Summer Silk Scarf).
Sooo… today’s lunchtime included a quick ripping session, but I actually like my mistakes and may use the “creative knitting” in another project. Stay tuned to see what I choose for the knitted-on edging and the release of my “as yet unnamed scarf”.
Happy Knitting!
KathiS Designs 
I understand your pain. I had to rip out a bunch of the scarf I am knitting for the forth time. At least when you are knitting and make a mistake you can just rip it out and do it over. I wish life were that easy sometimes.
I have decided that you shouldn’t try to knit complex patterns riding in the car or having discussions. This seems true especially when using fine lace yarn. I can never keep each individual stitch from getting too close to its neighbor and both getting knitted as a single stitch which messes me up completely. I am constantly having to count stitches to make sure I haven’t lost any or finding I am at the end of the row and don’t have the right number to stay in pattern. RRRRrrrriiiiipppp!
Love this pattern though. I hope you will either send it to me or post it on Ravelry.
Try stitch markers then count between them.