Blocked Veronika

I forgot the one thing I did get done this week. I finished knitting Veronika last weekend and got it blocked last night. Ta da!

 There are some errata and clarifications, plus I made a change to the design. Elizabeth from the NieblingLaceKnitters yahoo group was kind enough to share what the blurry symbols are, as well as the "move marker" symbols seem to go the wrong way. She figured it out from trial and error, saving the rest of us some time and effort. Thanks, Elizabeth! Here are her clarifications and corrections:

Round 1- (one) make 4 from 1
R13- (one) k4tog
R15- move marker forward 1 stitch
R35- (six) make 3 from 1
R37- move marker backwards one stitch
R45- (two) k9tog
R47- (six) make 3 from 1
R57- (three) make 3 from 1, (two) k9tog, (three) make 3 from 1
R67- (two) k9tog.

For the Make 4 from 1's  I decided to do (k1, yo)2x instead of alternating knits and purls. It made the start MUCH faster and easier. Did the Make 3 from 1's as k1, yo, k1. Don't think it made much difference visually, but the ease of it sure helped my attitude, especially since I had to start over after 60-someodd rounds the first time. I decided to do all the k9tog's as slip 6 individually, k3tog, pass slipped stitches over. Very do-able.

The other change I made was in the number of repeats for rounds 77 through the end. The pattern calls for 20 repeats of a 16 stitch sequence. Since there are 8 repeats in the rest of the pattern, I changed it to 16 repeats of a 20 stitch sequence. To do that, I added one unit of hex mesh (k2tog, yo, yo, ssk) to the repeat. I wound up knitting 2 extra rounds, but I really prefer the look of it. Cleaner and more intentional, I think.

Blocked out to 20" in circumference, and it looks smashing on the dark wood table. Victory!

Veronika Ripped, Lars

I had a streak of bad luck once I got around 62+ rounds in on this one. I dropped a stitch that ran down about 4 rounds, started tinking back and  dropped another one after about a round and half, then dropped a third one right over (and down into) one of the k9togethers. So I ripped it! I'll probably start again sometime soon, but for now I need to work on something simpler with larger thread.

I started knitting a few of the doilies from Sonja Esbensen's book Kunststrik 2. Lars had a couple of errors, but it was easy to spot them and easy to fix them.

Corrections:
The cast on instructions tell you to cast on 12 and knit 1 round. To get the look in the picture, though you need to knit 3 rounds before you start the chart.

In round 36, omit the last yarn over to get the correct stitch count and maintain the pattern lines. It should read “yo, knit 1, yo, double decrease, yo, knit 4, yo, double decrease, yo, knit 1, yo, knit 1, double decrease, knit 1”

Veronika

Just had to cast on a lace piece! I've been knitting simple things (socks, domino scarves, JMS) over the holidays, now I'm ready for some complexity. Someone in the Niebling Lace Knitters yahoo group mentioned this free pattern Veronika and we decided to do it a knit-along. I cast on last night with size 80 tatting thread and size 0000 needles. The first round was tricky, increasing every stitch to 4 stitches right off the bat with nothing to hold on to. Took me 45 minutes. The third round was a bit fiddly, too, establishing the twisted stitches that form the central flower. The rest wasn't bad at all. I made it through round 17 before I decided it was bedtime.

Listening to The Specials lately, need a little ska to get me going. Finn starts dancing every time I have it on in the kitchen. Gotta start 'em young........

Snowflake Doily

This weekend I decided to take a break from "should" knitting and do some "want to" knitting. Yay! I needed a break. On Friday night I cast on the lovely Niebling doily from the spring issue of Anna magazine. It isn't named, but it reminds me of a snowflake. I'm using the leftover thread from the Piecework doily and size 0 needles. I made it to round 50 last night. About 20 rounds to go, give or take. This one has pattern on almost every round, making stitch markers and counting very important. It's been challenging so far, but it makes sense the way the pattern emerges. No chart errors so far!

For those of you who don't knit much lace, this is the "before" picture. It's lumpy and weird looking now, but when it's been cast off and blocked it'll be magically transformed. Just wait a few days and you'll see.