I’m working on developing a lace stitch, or perhaps I should say “pattern,” based on a traditional one called Fish Scale.  Creating your own stitches/patterns is fun and exciting, but it can also be very frustrating, especially when you have to keep ripping because something has gone awry.  More on that in a moment.

Patterned stitches that make motifs, like leaves, chevrons, and so on, consist of a number of stitches in a row and a number of rows in pattern to produce a motif.  So, if the knitting pattern says the stitch is in multiples of 10, and the instructions tell you what to do for 12 rows, then you have a motif of 10 stitches wide by 12 rows high.  The motifs may be repeated across a row, as the Fish Scale stitch usually is, or it may be a focal point in a continuous background.

Little problems can appear at the stitch level - one dropped, or twisted, or the yarn is split.  Bigger ones could be one row having too many or two few stitches, throwing everything in the pattern off.  Worst case, you don’t notice the problem until you’ve finished a set of motifs, and there’s a major disconnect in the pattern.  Scared, yet?     Never fear, there are ways to avoid some of that angst. 

Let ‘er Rip!
This is one of my more compulsive efforts:  Because you can expect to run into problems with an unfamiliar pattern, use a contrasting yarn to collect each row of stitches after you knit it, like this:

• Thread a tapestry needle  (not a hooked Chibi, please) with a contrasting yarn. 
• As you finish a row, thread the needle through all the stitches on the needle. 

If you have to rip a row, you can rip away without fear of dropping stitches, or twisting them when you put them back on the needle because that bit of yarn is holding them just as if they were on a kneedle.  If you’re very nervous, or cautious, you can keep threading the yarn through every row. I usually start with a good long piece of yarn and keep it going through row after row until one repeat of the pattern is complete and checked for glitches.

Keeping Track as You Knit
Some patterns go on for 20 or 30 rows. How in the heck do you keep track of which row you’re knitting? Or which row you just knit, if you had to put down your knitting and do something else? Hey, it happens. They have these great things called knit or row tallies. There’s a dial on the end to keep track of rows - this can be used for any knitting project where you need a row count. Put it on your knitting needle, advance it one number after you finish each row.

For a more high tech but wacky solution, I put my stitch patterns into Word files - one row per row of knitting, one column per stitch. You may have to switch to landscape layout, short and wide, like a sheet of paper turned on its side. I make the stitches in large, bold font, and each column is a different color, to further avoid confusion.

Then I reduce my window so that only one row shows at a time. When I’ve knit that row, I simply scroll up to the next row. This works really well when you’re learning a pattern stitch, but the tally makes an good backup…in case of the blue screen of death, for example. Yes, when I was knitting yesterday, working on the actual piece, not just practicing, the computer locked up, and I had to reboot. I know I remembered to advance to the next row, as appropriate, but what row was that? The stitch tally would have been a big help.

Troubleshooting
It helps to do a stitch count at the end of each row, at least while you’re learning. And, if you run into problems, it helps to know where each repeat of the pattern begins and ends.  So, mark the ends of each motif with a stitch marker slipped on your needle (or slipped through the stitch if you have that kind). I you have no markers, you can even thread a paper clip through the stitches.

If you get to the end of the row and have too many or too few stitches, go back and count the stitches between markers to pin down which motif went wrong.  OR, if the motifs are fine, perhaps you counted wrong in your background stitches.  It happens. I know.

The Big Picture
To keep track of where each motif (group of rows) ends, use markers where each repetition ends.  Then you have a place to go back to if the worst happens and you can’t figure out what’s gone wrong and want to rip it all.  Try collecting that row with the contrasting yarn, as above. Or, if you’re not worried about ripping, you can use a paper clip or a granny knot in a contrasting yarn to mark the row.

Take a Deep Breath
I hope I haven’t intimidated anyone who really is a nervous knitter. There are always ways to avoid problems, as well as ways to make fixing them simpler. Learning to knit can be confusing at first, but if you start out taking precautions, pretty soon you’ll be knitting happily along and chuckling over the things you had to do at first. It’s worth the effort for the pleasure and satisfaction knitting brings.

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