I have been working, off, and on, on this amazing Celtic shawl for at least 5, going on 6 years now. Here is how far I’ve gotten.
I don’t remember if I showed you the pattern I’m using, but I’m going to show you know, cuz I need a little bit of sympathy in my dotage.
More proficient knitters would probably not have needed to do all of the doodling that I had to do, but, in my defense, I hadn’t been knitting very long before I started this, and had never knitted from a diagram before; only from the written pattern. So, for my mental health, and ease of working this pattern, I decided to do the homework I needed to do.
As you can see from the first pattern photo above, I printed two copies of the pattern, one for the right side pattern, and one for the wrong side. Then, I looked at the legend where it shows what goes in each square in the direction you’re knitting, and filled in the squares with either (k) knit, or (p) perl. I also had to made an arrow to indicate the direction that section is to be knitted; right to left, or left to right.
Next, there are 9 separate sections to be knitted across both the right, and wrong sides, so I indicated which sections each one was. They are labeled as A, B, C, D, and E on the pattern, but that was too confusing for me so I just labeled them 1-9.
I forgot to mention that the order they are knitted in is as follows: chart A, chart B, chart C, chart D, chart C, chart B, chart C, chart D, chart E. So, as I knit across, and I’m needing the information for the 6th of the 9 sections, I need to go back to chart B. At the top of the pattern, I have written in the sections to be knitted from each chart, making it so much easier for me to follow.
Then, I put it down, and don’t pick it up again for a few years, and that’s a whole other ball of wax. That’s why I did what I did.
Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.