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March 3, 2006

Travelling Along

I've decided that travelling stitches are not extremely difficult, but holy crap, the charts...that's another story. The Chalet Sock is made up of a series of travelling stitches that create lovely designs. Basically you just cross your knit stitch over an adjacent purl stitch either to the left or right to create a series of lovely designs. However, figuring out how to read the charts took a bit of work and caused some headaches. Involved in figuring out the wheres and whys was a somewhat pleading e-mail to Theresa, as an experience Chalet Sock knitter, for a bit of assistance. She was quite helpful and said something that really clicked in my little brain - you look at the graph and then look at your knitting and decide which way the stitches need to be twisted. What? You have to look at your knitting? When did this happen? And more importantly, how the heck did I get myself involved in a pattern that required that much effort? So, still quite unsure and more than a little skeptical that I could actually do what was required of me to pull this off, I started the leg pattern and you know what? It was one of those light bulb moments. Seriously. I'm pretty sure that if anyone had been in my office after that first round of leg pattern, you would have seen a little light bulb over my head. The whole travelling stitch thing, while not simple, isn't really complicated. I still need the chart because I haven't made it through an entire pattern repeat yet, but when I look at the completed row and see where the chart says the stitch needs to go, I just make it go there. I don't even need the little key they provide in the book.

And the best part is that it's kinda fun. There's a pattern that develops as you knit and it's textured and interesting. Sometimes the addis get annoying when I'm knitting into the back of a crossed stitch, but I think working on the 2 circulars makes a lot more sense on this project.

So, anyway, I've finished the first set of patterns and am almost done with the second (there is one pattern on the sock that alternates with another - literally an XO alternating repeat). At this point it's kind of difficult to see the pattern, but here's what I have.

And here's the seam pattern that runs down the back of the leg.

These pictures actually represent the color pretty well. If turquoise could be neon, this would be what it'd look like. The slight variations in the dyeing add another dimension and I like working the the Lorna's Laces a lot. It's tightly spun enough to withstand all the manipulation these stitches have to go through. A looser spun yarn could potentially have some problems. So, I'll keep working on it and see how the pattern develops. It's not a quick knit, but so far has been enjoyable.