Tutorial: Lace Charts 3 - How to Read a Shawl Chart

I like my patterns to be inclusive, so I try to offer them with both written and charted instructions. However, sometimes (like the Mahy shawl) a chart is the best way of offering concise and precise information. I know many people don’t like charts, but I hope this series of tutorials will go some way to demystify charts and explain how to use them.  So, we've had a look at the anatomy of a lace chart and how to read a basic chart. Today I'll take a look at a slightly more complex chart that adds extra stitches as well as mysterious "no stitches".

We had a look at this in the first tutorial. But there was one thing I left out that you may or may not have seen in charts: "No Stitch" symbols. 

The "No Stitch" symbol is inserted because charts are essentially a 2D grid of a 3D object. Because we make stitches in that position later on, we need the grid to reflect that. To wit:

I like to hide "No Stitch" squares in my chart because I find they cause more confusion than they are worth. As a knitter, all you need to know is that these "No Stitch" squares are actions that do not exist yet. Skip them. You are yet to make them.

So, let's go back to the lace chart where the "No Stitch" squares have all vanished into thin air. Let's figure out how to follow this one.

Step 1: Look for the row number. You start with Row 1. Step 2: Work in the direction you are working the stitches. On RS rows, work from right to left. On WS rows, work from left to right. Step 3: Each square represents an action you must take. Mostly you end up with a single stitch on your needle as the result of your action, but keep checking your chart key for information! Step 4: If you cannot see a square or if the square is indication as "No Stitch", you skip to the next action you can see. Step 5: If information isn't visible (i.e. you cannot see WS rows on the chart), check the pattern for instructions.

Keeping all this in mind, you might start looking at the chart like this:

This post is part of my Lace Chart tutorial series:

Lace Charts 1 – The Anatomy of a Lace Chart Lace Charts 2 – How to Read a Basic Chart Lace Charts 3 - How to Read a Shawl Chart Lace Charts 4: Chart Tricks & Knitting Hacks

Next time we will look at chart comprehension hacks and how to customise your charts. That will be the last chapter, so keep your questions coming either here or via social media. Kx

Tutorial: Lace Charts 2 - How to Read a Basic Chart

I like my patterns to be inclusive, so I try to offer them with both written and charted instructions. However, sometimes (like the Mahy shawl) a chart is the best way of offering concise and precise information. I know many people don’t like charts, but I hope this series of tutorials will go some way to demystify charts and explain how to use them.  This post is about how to read a basic chart. The chart is very straightforward - no shaping and no extra stitches being added. If you like this stitch pattern, you may enjoy my Florence scarf (it's free and only takes one ball of fluffy yarn).

Reading a chart can be really daunting. Unfortunately chart symbols are not standardised and so you need a key which explains what the various symbols mean. Always check the key to make sure you know what the symbols mean. 

Tip: If you find it hard to remember what the various symbols mean, or if you keep mixing up two symbols, make a copy of the chart and assign a colour to each symbol. Grab highlighter pens and start colouring in the chart. It's a nice little brain-hack.

Now let's look at the chart itself.

Row numbers are important because they tell you which is the RS and the WS rows. RS rows have numbers on the right-hand side. WS rows have numbers on the left-hand side. We'll come back to why this is important in just a second!

Pattern repeats are outlined. Normally the outline is red, but you may come across a fat, black line being used if the pattern is provided in black & white. The outline is exactly the same as the repeat from *.. you are used to from written instructions. In this case, you can see this is a 10-stitch/6-row repeat. You repeat the ten stitches over and over, until you finish with one stitch (the one outside the repeat).

Action is how I think of a square in a lace chart. Each square represents an action you must take when you get to that stage. Many people think that each square represents a stitch, but sometimes you work more than one stitch per square or do not work a stitch at all. A right-slating line means you are knitting two stitches together; a V (not represented) typically means you are slipping a stitch from one needle to another.

When you work a lace chart, you move from one action to another. One of the biggest advantages of a chart is that it shows you how actions stack on top of one another, creating a stitch pattern. The visual mimicry of the chart symbols often mean your fabric will resemble the chart!

The two biggest problems of reading a lace chart is A) where to start and B) how to know which direction you read the actions. Many people think you start by reading a chart like you'd read a piece of English-languaged text: top left and reading left to right. This is incorrect. And this is where we go back to talking about row numbers because row numbers are your friends.

A chart mimics the knitted fabric and your first row will therefore always be at the very bottom. The row number shows that you start at the right-hand side and work your way left. This corresponds with how you work the stitches too: you move your stitches from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle. When you work the WS rows, you will have turned your work, so you need to turn/revert the direction in which you are reading the actions. Again, the row numbers are your anchors as they will show you where the given row starts!

So in short:

This post is part of my Lace Chart tutorials.

Lace Charts 1 - The Anatomy of a Lace Chart. Lace Charts 2 - How to Read a Basic Chart Lace Charts 3 - How to Read a Shawl Chart Lace Charts 4: Chart Tricks & Knitting Hacks

Hope you found this useful! Next time we'll be looking at how to deal with 'no stitches', shaping, and how to customise your lace chart reading. As always, comments and questions are welcome! Kx

Tutorial: Lace Charts 1 - The Anatomy of a Lace Chart

I like my patterns to be inclusive, so I try to offer them with both written and charted instructions. However, sometimes (like the Mahy shawl) a chart is the best way of offering concise and precise information. I know many people don't like charts, but I hope this series of tutorials will go some way to demystify charts and explain how to use them.  This first post is about the anatomy of a lace chart and what decisions go into making a chart as easy to read & use as possible.

Here's a mock-up of a chart showing the beginning of a triangular shawl.

There is a lot of redundant information here. Look closely and you'll see that all the even-numbered rows are telling you to k2, purl across, k2. Those are the WS rows.

To stop your eye being bombarded with repetitive and redundant information, these rows are hidden. I would then add a note to the pattern itself: "Work all WS rows as follow: k2, purl across, k2"

The chart would then look like this:

That's better. Without distracting WS rows that tells you the same thing again and again, it's far easier to see the odd-numbered rows (RS) where you will be working a pattern.  Hang on, there is more redundant information.

Due to the construction of a standard triangular shawl,  you are doing four things again and again. We've already discussed the first (WS rows), so let's look at the other three. The second thing you keep doing is knitting the first two stitches of every row. The third thing you do is to knit the centre stitch. The fourth thing is to knit the last two stitches of every row.

But there is a fifth instance of repetition in this chart. Have you spotted it?

The chart has you repeating the same stitch patterns after the centre stitch (I will be writing more about this in a later instalment. Note that I am talking about actions in the image- in the next part I will share how you read a lace chart and we'll talk more about actions then).

By now you will have twigged that I am a big fan of removing repetitive information. Some patterns work best if I keep the edge stitches, the centre stitch and the two sides of the lace chart - I find the edge stitches and the centre stitch particularly useful as anchors - but other patterns are so full of information, that I want to leave out all the repetitive actions. It depends upon who the pattern is aimed at - easy shawls will have more anchors and complex shawls far fewer.

And so for complex shawls I'd add in-depth notes:

• Work all WS rows as follow: k2, purl across, k2
• All rows begin and end with k2 (edge stitches)
• Remember to work the centre stitch forming the spine between the two sides of the shawl.

And so the chart ends up looking like this:

This post is part of my Lace Chart tutorial series:

Lace Charts 1 - The Anatomy of a Lace Chart Lace Charts 2 - How to Read a Basic Chart Lace Charts 3: How to Read a Shawl Chart Lace Charts 4: Chart Tricks & Knitting Hacks

If you found this post complex, don't worry! We are going back to basics next time where I'll show you how to read a lace chart! As always, please do leave comments! Kx

Authors & Artists: The Mahy Shawl

The Mahy shawl is the second instalment in the Authors & Artists series. It is a traditional hap shawl knitted in Shetland Organics 1-ply and some of the motifs are traditionally Shetland - yet the shawl also takes it cue from a place on the other side of the world.

I was 13 when I first came across Margaret Mahy's The Changeover. It was a YA book about Laura Chant who lived with her divorced mother and her baby brother in Gardendale - a modern suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. I recognised myself in Laura: she was stubborn, a head too old on her shoulders, and she felt uneasy in her surroundings. Many's book was cleverer than I realised when I first devoured the book. It is a subtle post-colonial book about finding your own identity in a young country; it references Alice in Wonderland constantly; and Mahy plays riffs on rites of passage. I had my first literary crush on the male protagonist, Sorry Carlisle - the complicated boy with labyrinths in his eyes.

Waitangi River

But it was the mundane exoticism of New Zealand that caught my eye. I recognised the remoteness, the myths woven into every branch and stone, and the complexities of the past mixed with the present.

The Changeover sparked a lifelong romance with New Zealand. I would later drive through Paraparaumu - a town dismissed by Laura in the book - and I felt like I was walking inside the book. I re-read the book at least once a year and I still find myself reflected in it.

Lion Rock on Piha Beach

The Mahy shawl owes its name and soul to a New Zealand author - but much of its philosophy belongs to another Margaret from New Zealand: Margaret Stove. Stove is a lace knitter and designer who I admire very much. Her book Wrapped in Lace is not just a fine collection of patterns, but Stove also writes passionately about the need to develop a local lace vocabulary. While Stove understands and respects lace knitting traditions, I am utterly fascinated by Stove's insistence that her work needs to reflect her landscape and flora. In the book she charts local New Zealand flowers and plants - kowhai features heavily together with ferns - and I find that overwhelmingly inspirational. Why should we not respond to the world in which we live? Why should we not design inspired by what we see around us rather than base our work upon age-old stitch patterns that do not reflect our own lives?

The Mahy shawl uses old Shetland patterns as inserts, but the main motif is inspired by the stylised ferns I saw carved everywhere in New Zealand. The carved section is reflected by the applied border which is a smaller version of the carved section.

I wanted to knit a hap shawl out of the beautiful yarn, but the design itself surprised me. I find knitting is a form of autobiography, but I had not expected to dwell on my love for The Land of the Long White Cloud. And yet it seems so obvious to explore a landscape which has had a huge impact on me: Laura Chant's infinitely complex inner life in Mahy's book, the music from Karekare beach, the lighthouse dwellers, the man on the Lone Kauri Road, and even comedy. For a myriad of reasons, this seems the most personal of designs.

You run from the river, when it long ran over you..

Mahy is now available from Ravelry.

Knitting Mahy - Yarn Choices

 The weather gods were in our favour. We finally have proper photos of the Mahy shawl. I'll write about the inspiration behind the shawl in the next blog post, but first I wanted to talk yarn. Mahy was knitted using roughly 770 yards of Shetland Organics 1ply.

Gulp, doesn't 1ply mean that this is cobweb, sewing-thread thin and ethereal? Oh, Karie!

No.

In this context it simply means that the yarn consists of a single strand rather than several thinner plies twisted together. The yarn is registered on Ravelry as a cobweb and I find that grossly misleading.

Shetland Organics 1ply is a heavy laceweight. I used the light grey shade which runs 700 yrds per 100 g. The shawl is knitted on 5mm needles which results in a lightweight, yet substantial fabric.

This is not an ethereal, dainty shawl. Mahy is delightfully light on my shoulders, but it is also warm and practical.

The yarn was given to me by Louise Scollay who understands my taste in yarns.  In many ways, this yarn is reminiscent of Garthenor 1ply  (which I used for my Ronaes) and also of my beloved Snældan 1ply (which I used for Hoxne and Storegga): it is a heavy laceweight which has a lot of body despite appearances, blooms beautifully after blocking, and has a great deal of character whilst you work with it. I recommend both the Garthenor and the Snældan as good substitutes. Any excuse to use Snældan, really..

But what if you don't share my passion for crunchy, rustic and woolly laceweights? Well, here's another photo of Mahy and then we'll talk yarn subs.

Susan Crawford's Fenella 2ply would make a really lovely shawl. The yarn is a smidgen heavier, but it looks beautiful worked up in garter stitch. The colours are all subtle and beautiful - and the yarn is very well-sourced (if you care about such things - I find I increasingly do).

Mahy is a true hap shawl using traditional Shetland techniques - and if you want a traditional feel and also want colour, Jamieson's Ultra is a natural choice. Note that the balls are 25g balls, so you'll need to order accordingly. I find the Ultra slightly more frail during blocking than other similar yarns, so take care.

As for handdyed yarns, why not think outside the box and go for slightly heavier yarns? Dublin Dye Co. Plush Lace runs 600 yrds/100g (you'd need two hanks). MoonlightYarns does an amazing gradient set which would look stunning with Mahy. You can use finer yarns, but make sure to swatch (i.e. simply work up enough of the central triangle!) to check you like the fabric you are getting. You may also want to consider using handdyed sock/4ply/fingering yarn - it would make for a bigger shawl and you'd definitely need to watch your yardage - but I love that idea. Due to the stitch patterns used, Mahy can take a fair amount of colour shifts, actually.

Recap:

• I used roughly 770 yards of a heavy laceweight (700yrds/100g)
• 1ply does not automatically mean cobweb etherealness!
• Think about yardage/weight if substituting yarn.
• Choose a yarn that looks lovely in garter stitch on 5mm needles.

(One day I shall convert you all to squishy, crunchy, oatmealy, rustic, woolly goodness.)

Mahy will become available as soon as my technical editor gives me the thumbs up. As for now, it's wrapped around my shoulders.

No Pressure, Karie, No Pressure.

Another photo shoot beckons. I am a perfectionist and I haven't been happy with the photos we've managed to get so far. The first shoot was basically us trying out a couple of locations. Obviously the first location we tried turned out to be my favourite - isn't it always so? - but we had only shot a couple of photos. I wanted more. So, yesterday we headed out for another shoot. I was tired and I think it showed in the images.

I used to joke about modelling being a real job, but now I know it's actually hard work. Usually our shoots lasts between fifteen to forty-five minutes: you have to account for the light, get a variety of shots, get pattern details, and find that magic connection between yourself and the camera. So, going into a shoot with a tired body and a tired brain wasn't the best thing.

But this is your first real glimpse of Mahy, isn't it?

I absolutely love this shawl and I think this is one of the reasons why I've been so hard on the photos. I want to capture just how special this feels to me. I want the photos to convey just how amazing it felt to knit the shawl and how fantastic it feels to wear it.

No pressure, Karie.