I've only used charts for lace knitting and cables (fisherman knits). Many of those patterns have no "pattern work" from the wrong side/return row, you just knit where there are knit stitches and purl above each existing purl stitch.
Often lace charts that have just purls on the wrong side will omit the wrong side rows altogether, which means you don't have to worry about reading the chart "backwards". This is a good kind of pattern for beginning lace chart-users. The chart will show odd-numbered rows (the numbers usually at the right end of the row) and will probably have a note that even-number rows are not shown. One quirk of knitted lace is that there may be different numbers of stitches on each (pattern) row, and this has to be worked into the grid of a chart. A triangle shawl will always have at least one more increase (yarn-over) than the number of decreases in each row that is widening. The extra increase(s) are usually near the edge, so the graph just widens. However, sometimes there are increases deep within the pattern, and then the rows below may have a gray square to indicate there is no stitch there (until you get to the row with the increase). It's not difficult to follow these, just pretend the gray squares are not there. It's just a matter of getting used to it. If the number of stitches per row varies for just a few rows, the chart-maker may not use gray squares to fill in the . But this means that the extra stitches stick out to the ends of the chart and the stitch in column ten of row X may not be exactly above the stitch shown in column ten of the row above or below it. In other words, what look like columns of stitches in the chart are not in columns on the fabric. Another quirk of some charts is when there is a repetitive set of stitches. A stole may be, say 56 stitches wide and 506 rows long, but the chart may only show 16 stitches and 16 rows, with a box around the middle 10x10 stitches/rows. This means that there are 3 rows before getting into the lace patterns, then 500 rows of pattern (50 repeats of 10 rows), then 3 rows after the lace pattern. In the central 500 rows, there are 3 stitches before the first 10-stitch repeat, then do the stitches in the box (repeating the 10 stitches 4 more times), then do the 3 stitches on the other side of the box to reach the end of the row. Because some lace designs can have different numbers of stitches per row (discussed above), the box around one repeat may not be perfectly square--it might bulge in places to accommodate the extra stitches on some rowsl I know this all sounds a bit confusing. If someone has a chart that they're trying to learn from, post the information on Arachne and maybe one of us has the chart and can help with specific trouble spots. I also recommend the book bt Barbara Walker, I believe it's called "Charted Lace Patterns". It's either #2 or #3 in the 4-volume treasury of knitting patterns by her. The book is a great source of information on charting and how to read charts. Robin P. Los Angeles, California, USA robinl...@socal.rr.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
