The Knitting Fiend

My version of Christine’s “Lelah Top” will use “Vine Lace”¹at the bottom. Here’s how to knit this simple lace in the round:

Multiple of 9 stitches.
Rounds 1 & 3: Knit all stitches.
Round 2: * k1, yo, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, yo; rep from *
Round 4: * yo, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, yo, k1; rep from *

That’s it. Round 4 is very similar to round 2; it’s just shifted a stitch. This makes the lace very easy to memorize and knit while watching TV.

I’ll admit that even as simple as this lace is to knit, I goofed up the first time I knit round 4. I don’t know how. I probably skipped one of the k2’s every now and then, or something. All I know, is I knit the 144 stitches in the round and “oops”, I wasn’t at the end of the pattern repeat. Arghhh!

Ripping back in lace is not fun. In fact, I goofed that up, and ended up ripping back beyond the eyelet round and reknitting. Arghh! (Can you tell I’m not a lace knitter? I also should have knit a lace dishcloth to practice the stitch pattern. )

To solve my little problem, I distributed 8 markers around the perimeter, each located where one of the *’s of the instructions would appear. For this top, this happens to be a marker after every other pattern repeat. The markers helped me notice goofs before I knit too far, because I knew I should be at the end of a pattern repeat before I contined. At most, I had to rip back 12 stitches, which is a heck of a lot better than ripping back a full row. (Or worse yet, rip back to the eyelet round )

After knitting several rounds, I my fingers memorized the pattern. I could drop seven of the markers, leaving one to note the beginning of the round. But, I’ve kept 4, just in case!

It’s going quickly; I hope I can wear this Monday!

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1. Instructions to knit “Vine Lace” in rows appear on p. 218 of “A Treasury of Knitting Patterns”, by Walker.