Charts: St. Patrick’s Day Washcloth

Tomorrow (Saturday, March 10) I’ll be teaching a class on reading knitted charts.  I’m a strong proponent of charts because you see what the knitting SHOULD look like while you’re in the midst of knitting.  Also, an error in a chart is easily spotted — stitches don’t line up properly or you’ve “lost” a stitch — while row-by-row directions may be filled with typos or other errors that you won’t see until you’re in the midst of the chaos.

Yep, charts are my favored way to go.

St. Patrick's Day washcloth -- a great word to chart pattern to try.

And since St. Patrick’s Day is next weekend … and I love y’all so much … I’ve just posted a free pattern on Ravelry for a washcloth that uses both charted and row-by-row directions.  Here’s the link to the Ravelry download (St. Patrick’s Day washcloth), but I thought I would take a minute and walk you through the chart that’s included in the pattern … a chance for you to see first-hand how to read a chart and make sure your knitting matches up.

Here’s the chart which accompanies the pattern:

Chart for St. Patrick's Day washcloth, a free pattern on Ravelry.

Basically, you want to read the chart from right to left (for RS rows) and left to right (WS rows).  Understand that the majority of charts are written for how the stitches look from the public, or right, side of the item.  All charts have a key to their symbols — here, I’ve enlarged the key on this particular chart for ease in reading.

You can see that we have a slipped-st at the beginning of every row and that this washcloth is bordered with knitted-in garter-stitch.  Each square = one stitch, so you’d want to cast-on 37 sts and work garter st for 10 rows.

The lace or eyelet work begins on row 25, with YO’s represented by “O” and k2tog’s   represented by “/”.  As you work your way (right-to-left and then left-to-right) up the chart, you’ll encounter other types of stitches (such as a “\” for ssk or a tee-pee type of picture for a k3tog).  Again, all these symbols are defined in the chart’s key.

The whole lace shamrock takes you to row 52 (where you will do a knit and a purl in those two YOs from the previous row), finishing with a 10 row garter-st border.

So what would have taken 64 lines of row-by-row directions, can be synthesized into one chart (with it’s accompanying key) to which you can refer throughout the knitting of the washcloth to ensure accuracy.

Can you see why I love charts?

BTW, this design uses worsted-weight cotton such as Peaches’n'Cream, Cotton Supreme or Riveting-worsted.

 

Fall Classes and New Yarns 2010

     Our fall class list was posted on our website earlier this week and our latest newsletter should be out shortly.  The classes begin this coming Sunday, October 17 when Bonnie from Tea Time Garden will take the mystery out of spinning yarn using a drop spindle.  We also have lots of sock classes, beginner knitting and crocheting, and special classes where you can learn how to knit a beaded scarf or wet felt decorator soaps.  In addition to the drop spindle class, we have Linda from Misty Mountain Farm teaching a beginning wheel spinning class.

      On Saturday, November 6, you’re invited to a Lawre’s Laine Trunk Show where you can order a custom handbag or knitting bag.  More about this later, but you can take a peek at what Lawrie can do by visiting her website.  She has a variety of fabric available and can also  create leather bags, or a combo.  She even offers a discount if you bring your own fabric.

Spiceberry

      Lots of new yarns have arrived including new colors of Lush Mohair and some gorgeous mohair/silk from Cascade.  We also have a basket of Cascade’s 128 Chunky Tweed, a fun yarn called Spice Berry from Universal, new sock yarns from Gypsy Knits and Unplanned Peacock (a merino cashmere blend), Kollage’s Solace which is an alpaca/silk combo, and this colorful bucket of Twisty Aran from Unplanned Peacock.  What a great hat/scarf combo the Twisty Aran would make.  Or how about gloves or fingerless mitts?

Twisty Aran from the Unplanned Peacock Studio

      We also managed to get our hands on a few skeins of two very special yarns. The first is a sport weight blend of alpaca, silk, and cashmere from Unplanned Peacock.  We will be getting more of this lucious yarn but right now we have only a few skeins and it was all Natasha had available.

      Our second new luxury yarn comes from another Virginia source, Furnace Mountain Alpacas.  Furnace Mountain has the nicest natural-color alpaca that we’ve seen yet.  We brought home some sock yarn to start off with and you can choose a fawn Huacaya or a magnificent Quicksilver in Suri.

Sock Yarn from Furnace Mountain Alpacas

      On Thursday we held our first Pot Luck Knit (or Crochet) night and we plan to repeat this on the first Thursday of every month from 6 to 8 p.m.  We’ll still have our regular knit nights on the otherThursdays.  If you’re in the area, please stop by.

Meet the Sock Creature

      Linda from Misty Mountain Farm dropped by to deliver one of the cute little sock creatures that daughter Leanna uses to display the latest colors for her Blue Ridge Yarns.  The long-legged fellow travelled to Ohio last month for the big needlearts trade show where Leanna’s hand-dyed yarns are always a favorite with yarn shop owners around the country.  This year, she introduced six new colors for her popular Footprints collection, and then added two old favorites to this unique line of sock yarn. 

Blue Ridge Yarns Sock Creature

      If you’re not familiar with Footprints, it’s a combination of 300 yards of multi-colored superwash merino with 100 yards of a solid color of the same yarn.  Leanna designed the paired colors so that they coordinate or contrast so that sock knitters can create socks with solid color toes and heels.  Thinking beyond socks, the pair can be used to knit or crochet gloves with multi-color hands and solid wrists or colorful scarves or hats with a solid border, or any other project you can think of.  What a great idea! 

Blue Ridge Footprints

      Come by and take a look at this year’s new colors and help us decide if the sock creature is a spider or an octopus.  We’re not sure what to call it, but it sure is cute. 

      If you’re interested in the Get Your Knits in Virginia Knit Kit, we only have a couple of them left.  The event runs through the end of July and 19 shops are participating.