May 19, 2003
Moving Right Along
I'm progressing pretty quickly with Magnhild's Løper. Last night I finished the second "pointer," picked up the stitches around the two pointers and the stitches I had on hold, joined it all together, and knit the first 13 rounds of the full oval. Here's a progress photo:
My doily is finally an oval, and I'm feeling quite thrilled with how it's all working out. The pattern is well-written and everything flows together nicely. I did some "fiddling" with symmetrical decreases, and will write about that in a separate entry (it's a pet peeve of mine; anal knitters unite!) But that's a fairly minor quibble.
Here are the details of what happens after you finish the second "pointer." This requires a bit of thought. I recommend reading through all of it before you start knitting.
Strikk eller ta opp 26m på hver side av spissen.
(Knit or pick up 26 stitches on each side of the "pointer.")
Luckily this is very easy to do. Since there were 52 rounds in each pointer, there is a handy little chain up the side of each pointer that was very easy to pick up, and it has exactly 26 loops! I love details like this!
1. omg: Først en spiss, så 1, g, 15r, g, I, r, I, g, 15r, g, I.
(Round 1: First one "pointer," then YO, K2tog, K 15, etc....)
Så tar du opp 26m på hver side av den andre spissen. Så I, g, 15r, g, I, r, I, g, 15r, g, I.
(Then pick up 26 stitches on each side of the other pointer, then YO, K2tog, K 15, etc....)
Okay, following this? I took a new longer circular needle (24"), joined in another thread (there are getting to be a lot of loose ends in this doily!), picked up 52 stitches from the first pointer (ignore the very point - I was concerned about that, but it worked just fine). After you complete the pointer pick-up, you follow the YO, K2tog, K15... instructions across the 39 stitches that you have on hold (mine were on a double point needle), then pick up 52 stitches from the other pointer, and work the 39 stitches off the original circular needle. This is much easier to do than to write about, and makes sense when you're doing it. I put markers at the "ends" of the pointer stitch sections, and an identifiably different marker at the beginning of the round. You now have all your stitches on one circular needle, and your round starts at the base of the first pointer. Knit round 2 plain.
3. omg: (I, r, 52 ganger), 1, g, 15r, g, I, r, I, g, 15r, g, i alt 2 ganger.
(Round 3: (YO, K1 52 times), YO, K2tog, K15, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, K2tog, K15, K2tog, two times altogether.)
The (YO, K1 52 times) takes care of the pointer stitches, and then you work the same 39 stitches as before in the central sections. You will be at the base of the second pointer when the finish the instruction the first time. Repeat the entire instruction again. (Notice that there is no balancing YO at the end of the 39 stitch section this time. You couldn't really put one there, since you start the pointer with a YO, but I mention it because I kept looking for that stitch since I had made it so many times before in the pattern at the end of the leaf motif.)
From round 3 to round 9 in this 40-round section, each round given is half of the doily, so is repeated 2 times. (i alt 2 ganger!)
On round 5 the distinction between the pointer sections and the side sections disappears as you work a K2tog with the last stitch of the pointer and the first stitch of the side. I took all the markers off but the first one while knitting this round. By then I could tell pretty clearly where I was.
Round 7 makes all the leaf forms the same width by strategic decreases, and on round 9 you are suddenly doing more or less the same thing over and over around the points, but the side stitches are still a little different (round repeats two times.)
On round 11, the repeat becomes the same all the way around the doily, and the instructions for the round are for only one repeat, worked over and over until the end of the stitches. This round ends with "omg ut," meaning "repeat until the end of the round."
I just finished round 13, things look like mostly smooth sailing until round 27, when you move the marker 8 stitches forward (but hey, we've done that before!), and then proceed straight along to round 40. I'll report back on my progress soon! I'm finding this knitting quite addictive. I can hardly wait to see what happens next!
Posted by Shelda at May 19, 2003 06:10 PM