The next step is to look for a pattern. I scoured my very large library of knitting stitch dictionaries. These represent possibilities. For some knitters, their stash represents possibilities. For me, it is the books and the ideas contained in them that represent possibilities. In this case, I wanted patterns that were relatively simple because it was for a beginning lace class. So patterns with repeated rows are good. Also patterns with some plain rows. And the patterns have to look cohesive together.
The next step was to think about construction. This is iterative with the process of finding the stitch patterns. My past experience with lace classes is that people don't finish their projects. I've done little lace sachets, scarves and a shawl. This stole class is going to be similar to the shawl class. Multiple sessions, walking students through each step of the process and then having them do the rest of the work at home. In the shawl class, this worked very well BUT, the edging tripped everyone up. Who wants to knit endless repeats of edging when the teacher isn't there with the whip cracking? So no edging. Which implies the stole needs to be self-edged. I had been pondering an up-and-down center with sideways knitted sides for a while and so that is what I decided to do. I didn't like the idea of cables going horizontally so the cables had to be in the center section.
What does this mean vis a vis the stitch patterns. Well, the side stitch pattern's stitch repeat count must divide evenly into the center stitch pattern's row repeat count. You'll see later that I blew this but for now, I had the math I needed. Back to the books with this decision in mind.
I found what I was looking for and I started swatching. The patterns are in two different books - both Japanese stitch dictionaries. This is the way I swatch. I knit with different needles (usually 3 sizes) so I can compare fabrics and decide which gauge to use. In this case, I used US 8, 9 and 10. The little tags indicate needle size for future reference. The first repeat of the cable/lace pattern at the bottom left is the size 8. The repeat above that is the size 9. The top two repeats on the left and the sideways knit pattern are on size 10s. You can see that the swatch is misshapen because of this.The swatch was washed and blocked (w/o the tags of course!). Next comes a big decision. How wide do I make the center section. There are 3 possibilities: center and sides equal in size, center larger than sides and center narrower than sides. I was leaning towards the latter because the first was too symmetric and offended my sense of asymmetry. But luckily I was at Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp so it was easy. I walked around and polled people. Bridget Rorem, who designed Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl in A Gathering of Lace, had a really good rationale for her recommendation. Making a narrower center section would make the wearer's body look larger as the back would be divided by the sections. That made a lot of sense so I decided on a 3' center with 1.5' side panels giving me approximately a 6' shawl that would be approximately 22" wide. I measured the swatch and calculated the st count based on the size 10 needle fabric. I had to make sure that I had a half repeat at the end to mirror the beginning. Now I could cast on. I did and knitted a few inches. But I found the fabric too floppy. So I ripped carefully and started over with size 9 needles.
To be continued...
