Do I want it soon, or do I want it right?
It seems I will not be getting both with these stockings.
I have made a beautiful swatch of the lace pattern, and I was very pleased with the way it turned out. Here it is shown in a tan worsted weight practice yarn. And so, I began the lace pattern on the leg of the stockings.
How did it get so complicated? A ha! Working in the reductions. That does present a challenge. I thought I got through pretty well. I had added a lifeline every first row of the 10-row repeating pattern. At every 14th row I needed to make a reduction. I thought I followed those directions well too.Then at row 70 of the pattern, when I stop reductions for a while, I am supposed to have 74 stitches. But after counting three times I am convinced, alas, I have an ESP (Error Some Place). I have only 72 stitches.
What to do now? There seems to be some mis-shaping in the lace pattern second from the knee (that's at the bottom of the photo). If I rip back 60 rows I might avoid having to make an entire third stocking in order to end up with one usable pair. If I rip back and re-do this leg, I might do a better job on the lace next time around.Well, as I write I seem to be convincing myself that ripping back about 60 rows and starting again after the ribbing must be the way to go. The last bit of doubt I harbor is due to the fact that this yarn, being a brushed wool, does not show that lace pattern as nicely as a smoother yarn would.
I'm wondering If I ought to leave more slack in my yarn overs, or maybe wrap around the needle two times per yarn over, so that the lace shows a little better. On these tiny US 1 (2.25 mm) needles, one wrap is not a lot of slack. The pattern calls for using a size US 3 needle. But when I used ones that large my stitches and were way to large to fit the gauge. My stitches per inch matched exactly with the US1 and the rows per inch were quite close.
6 comments:
Deep breaths and rip back (in my opinion lol)you'll regret not doing it properly, and yes, I think a little more slack in your yarn overs may help.
Crikey, this sounds really strict, but I speak from bitter experience!
PS. Did you get my email about photocopying the Rowan patterns?
Good luck. I used to go to a craft group where the lady in charge wouldn't let us unpick or redo any mistakes. She was convinced that the mistakes would lead us in new and exciting directions. I suppose the only direction you want to go with a stocking though is straight up.
Hi Little Jenny Wren,
I don't think I'd like not being free to correct any errors! I think about the number of times I messed up counting on K1, P1 ribbing and I would have given up in frustration long ago.
Oh dear, I'm going to have to agree about ripping back - it would always bug me, so I would have to fix it. I'm am somewhat relaxed about that in some projects, but never in lace!
About the yarnovers - did you like them in your gauge swatch? If you still have your gauge swatch (ha! I have maybe 2 gauge swatches that I didn't rip out before I started the project!) you could try blocking it and seeing how much it relaxes. That's usually a good idea for lace anyway.....(ask me how I know!)
Wow. Lace stockings - that's an amazing project!
Wow! Here I am, doing my first scarf in *only* a garter stitch, whining about having to rip it apart and do it again about four times, lol!
If I were you I'd start again. These are so nice and you'll never really love them if they're not quite right. Well, that's my very *unexperienced* opinion!
Should you have been torturing yourself so on Reformation Day?
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