Friday, May 25, 2007

Lacing along

I've finally made enough progress on mum's shawl (Alpine Lace, from Victorian Lace Today) to post a picture or two. I'm really pleased with how this is going so far, although I feel slightly crazy for choosing an all lace pattern for my first real lace, along with a mohair blend yarn. Fortunately, the fuzziness of the mohair blend yarn tends to hide the small mistakes I've made so far...cos I'm not ripping this sucker back for nothing! Thank goodness for stitch markers (and makers of said markers, Donni and Nora!)

Bells and I were talking (well, emailing) lace yesterday and in particular the Kiri shawl which the designer, Polly, suggests can be done in 24 hours. If you are lace knitting freak perhaps!!! I did 4 rows of the shawl last night and it took me about 50 minutes, with no tv or other distractions, for fear I'll stuff up big time on the pattern. There's 121 stitches per row, so that's 484 stitches in 50 minutes, so that's about 9-1/2 stitches per minute. Now, there's 424 rows in this pattern (well, clearly based on my calculating ability, there could be more, or less, but anyway), so 424 x 121 = 51,304 stitches. Oh, and you have to increase on the middle pattern so that's another, say 296 x 4 = 1,184 stitches, so all up, let's say 52,500 stitches. At 9-1/2 stitches per minute, that's 5,525 minutes, or 92 hours. (Oof, my brain hurts...) So, at the rate of about 2 hours per week (cos, you know, I can't go without telly for too long!!) I'll get this finished, hmmm, sometime NEVER perhaps!!

Perhaps it's a good idea not to worry too much about this kind of maths!!! I am loving knitting this though - I do a little mental happy dance when I reach each marker with the right number of stitches and the pattern correct!! And then on every 8th row, I do a huge mental happy dance because it's a purl row. A plain old purl row. Who would have thunk that I'd actually enjoy doing a purl row!

12 comments:

Bells said...

yay for red lace! yay for Victorian lace! And yay for mental happy dances.

I tried to follow your maths. My brain exploded.

Anonymous said...

your lace is so beautiful. i love diamond patterns. it's too pretty not to finish it, you'll do it.

Anonymous said...

However long it takes, however many stitches it takes doesn't matter - it's looking gorgeous :)

Diana said...

Your lace saga was hilarious! The math breakdown is depressing I know. It's that way fo me and an Alice Starmore sweater I am knitting on size 2. 8-10 minutes a row! The red looks gorgeous of course! Does mom like red as well as you? I have not tackled lace weight YET.

Michelle said...

The lace is gorgeous. Perhaps I should actually go ahead and buy that book, rather than just staring at it covetously online.

Linda said...

The lace looks lovely and the colour is great!

Anonymous said...

It looks fantastic so far! I love the color you chose.

Anonymous said...

Darling, when I clicked on the 1st pic (to see D's and my st markers in action) I landed on Helen's blog. Thinking I'd gone MAD, I clicked again - hi Bells (again).
Please fix. :)
PS: I love how you're using BOTH our markers side-by-side so we don't fight! You're a good gal, J.

Denise said...

LOL - yeah, don't do the maths, it's too frightening! I head that way occasionally, and then figure that if I know how many stitches are in a shawl (or whatever), and how long it'll take, I'd never get started.

You're brave to be starting lace in mohair - but your bravery is paying off, it looks stunning :) And yes, plain purl rows are a blessing!

Jenny said...

It looks beautiful It doesn't really matter how long it takes to make does it?

Ilix said...

Had to say that I love that colour choice! What a nice present this will be!

Lynne said...

Your lace work looks stunning. I sometimes fall into that maths trap myself - it can be a little daunting, can't it? I even have a calculator right beside my knitting chair! LOL

I've orderd VLT but have to wait for the next Guid meeting (16 June)to get it! :-(

http://2hot2knit.blogspot.com/