Sheila posted a comment an entry or two back asking whether Marianne Kinzel's charts (in the First and Second Books of Modern Lace Knitting) are comparable to the charts Sharon Miller includes in her recent Heirloom Knitting. Unfortunately it seems that there is no really "standard" set of symbols for lace knitting available.
Many authors use their own idiosyncratic symbol set (presumably because they work for them, or are what they have access to). There are standard sets of symbols from a number of magazines (standard to that magazine, I mean, like the symbols used in the Anna or Diana magazines from Europe, or Knitters in the US). Lace symbols aren't completely non-standard, there is certainly a lot of cross-over. But whenever you pick up a lace chart you need to be sure that you have access to the all-important symbol key, and look carefully to be sure you know what symbol the author is using for a given stitch. Almost all of the charts I've come across use an “O” for a yarnover, for example, but this isn't necessarily always the case.
I haven't knit anything from Sharon Miller's book yet, though I very much admire it. I looked at her charts, and she seems to use both a dot and a blank square to mean a knit stitch. As best I can tell she uses the blank square where there is a large expanse of plain knitting, and the dots when the knit stitches are in close proximity to other stitches. I could knit from her charts, but I think I'd find that annoying. Why have two symbols that mean the same thing? (I may well be missing something here; I looked it over fairly quickly).
As with all knitting, there's a lot of "knitter's choice" involved. I personally prefer having a blank cell for each knit stitch, and I sometimes feel strongly enough about it that I will rechart a pattern to conform to this preference (like the Kinzel "Springtime" pattern). But I do recognize this as my own idiosyncracy! Each to their own notion, and all.
Progress on Elizabeth
I'm scooting right along on my "Elizabeth" shawl, 1/4 of the way into what I think will be my final repeat of the lace pattern. I spent some time with Myrna's book this morning (Stahman's Shawls and Scarves), looking at the edgings. I was thinking that I might do 7-1/2 repeats of the pattern instead of 7 because I'm not sure that I'm going to like how the back panel breaks after that seventh repeat. I wanted to be sure my counts would be okay so that I could use the edging pattern as given. I've always assumed that I would do the edging knit on sideways, using up the live stitches as I moved across. But as I looked at the pattern I realized that I don't especially like the edging for "Elizabeth," and that I do like the seed stitch rows that edge the "Alka" shawl.
Seed stitch would certainly be faster, and I like the way it looks on this delicate lace. Interesting! I'll have to consider this possibility.
Verrrry interesting, the charting issue, isn't it? I agree with you-- I'd prefer to have one blank square = one knit stitch universally. You are right about HK, and I was also very confused about having two symbols for the same thing. At first I thought maybe one was garter stitch and the other stockinette, but nope, they mean exactly the same. And even more confusing is the Burda chart, where blank squares mean absolutely nothing. Nothing! I look forward to seeing the completed Elizabeth. I think you're right... the seed stitch will look nicer than the prescribed edging. Shelda, I love your blog!
Posted by: Sheila at August 18, 2003 10:33 AMThanks, Sheila! I'm thinking the seed stitch will look nice on "Elizabeth." Now I just have to decide for sure how long I want it. I would prefer not to knit the seed stitch twice ;)
Re: the Burda "nothing" squares, I do think those can be used to help make a chart more readable/understandable. I ended up using a gray square for the "no stitch" squares in my "Elizabeth" chart, and if you take a look at the experiment I did (A chart is a chart is...) you can see how dramatically they affect the final charted result. I was a little skeptical, but my finished charts definitely will have those squares!
Posted by: Shelda at August 18, 2003 11:19 AMYou're right, now that I look at your prior entry, I see that they do make a big difference. I think what throws me off about the Burda charts is that there are no squares that represent knit stitches, but there are squares that represent nothing. For the knitted stitches, there is just a number representing the number of stitches to knit.
Posted by: Sheila at August 19, 2003 03:12 PMI love to have the lace knitting patters.
Could you please help me?
Lydia.
Posted by: Lydia Gani at February 13, 2004 12:45 AM