Using Excel to create simple lace charts

Cross posted at marniemaclean.com

People run pretty hot and cold, when it comes to the topic of charts. Personally, I'm a big fan of them, and when it comes to lace, I find it nearly impossible to work without a chart. If you saw my knitting notebooks, you'd see that, no matter how simple or complex, I always chart my lace patterns out. If you enjoy working from charts or if you ever need to create a chart for a pattern, you can produce good clean results with spreadsheet software like Excel. I've created several tutorials in the past, which you can access here.

This tutorial will use some of the same techniques I've covered in Using Excel to design colorwork and Using Excel to aid in writing multi-sized patterns. If you haven't seen those tutorials and you aren't comfortable using a program like Excel, I suggest you browse them to get the basic concepts of working in Excel.

The lace

I've chosen a very simple lace stitch pattern, designed by Dorothy Reade, which I'm using in Donna Druchunas' upcoming book.

Here are the verbose instructions.

Multiple of 6+7
Foundation row: k1, *kbl, yo, ddc, yo, kbl, k1* repeat to end of row
Even numbered rows: Purl
Row 1: ssk, *yo, kbl, k, kbl, yo, ddc* to last 6 stitches, then, yo, kbl, k, kbl, yo, k2tog
Rows 3, 5, and 7: ssk, *yo, k3, yo, ddc* to last 6 stitches, then, yo, k3, yo, k2tog
Row 9 and 13: k1 *kbl, yo, ddc, yo, kbl, k1* repeat to end of row
Row 11: ssk, *yo, kbl, k, kbl, yo, ddc* to last 6 stitches, then, yo, kbl, k, kbl, yo, k2tog

These instructions could be compressed even further, as the foundation row, 9, and 13 are all identical and 1 and 11 are identical. Even so, I find it hard to use these instructions to visualize what I'm doing. I also find that it takes me longer to memorize a lace pattern if I can't see it charted out.

Set up your workspace

Select all the rows and cells in your Excel sheet and adjust the size of the cells to mimic the shape of a knit stitch. If need be, refer to the colorwork tutorial for more information on how to do this.

Based on the verbose instructions, I see that the +7 is made up of one stitch at the beginning of the row and 6 at the end and that there is a foundation row and 7 public side rows. Because I know this, I can number my rows and add grid lines.

If you can't determine this from reading the instructions,
just begin charting your lace, and go back add the row and stitch counts and your grid lines, later.

Inserting the first row of symbols

Foundation row: k1, *kbl, yo, ddc, yo, kbl, k1* repeat to end of row

There is no need to download fancy schmancy knitting fonts. You can communicate with your standard set of characters. See the key above, to see how I've translated the stitches to letters. Use characters that will make sense to you. I like a blank stitch for knit, "t" for "twist," "o" for "yo," and slashes and a carrot for the decreases. Don't like that? Do something different. I won't hate.

The first row with a modified last repeat

Row 1: ssk, *yo, kbl, k, kbl, yo, ddc* to last 6 stitches, then, yo, kbl, k, kbl, yo, k2tog

The first row in which we have a reason for those extra 6 stitches at the end. While the main pattern repeat requires a double decrease, the first and last decreases of the row will be single decreases. You will be able to see this more clearly when we get to the end.

Convert remaining rows to chart format

Complete the pattern as indicated in the verbose instructions. Whenever I can, I like to copy and paste, duplicate stitches and rows. Do whatever works best for you.

Double check your work, going stitch by stitch from text to chart.

The end results are neat and clean, but would probably cause confusion. It's not clear where the pattern repeats begins and ends.

Outline the repeat

Select the stitches that make up the repeat. In some patterns, this is very intuitive based on how the pattern is written, but some patterns are harder to distill down to a repeat, especially those where the location of the repeat shifts for one area to another. Lucky for us, this pattern is expressly written to make the repeat obvious, it's everything between the two asterisks [*]

Just select the stitches you want to outline, and choose a thick border to outline it. You can choose a custom border by going to the FORMAT menu and choosing CELL.

Shading for clarity

Finally, to make the repeat really obvious, shade everything that only gets worked once per row. This makes the repeat really clear and visually indicates the secondary elements.

I think that you'll find that many lace and knit/purl stitch patterns can be worked up this way. Have fun with it.

In the next tutorial, I'll cover doing more complex lace charts and discuss the ever-confounding "no stitch."

Indigo Flowers, in Bloom

Cross-posted from my blog.
Click to read about Indigo Flowers I, II, III, 3.5, and IV.

My dear friends, welcome to the show! Here, I give you Indigo Flowers , undergoing metamorphosis (blocking, that is):



Can you see how joyful the lace is, relaxing in a basin of tepid water?

A dollop of rose-scented conditioner leaves a lingering sweet scent on the vest. I know, I should have used orchid or lavender to match the mood of the vest, but I always find rose irresistible.


As you can see, the neckline is finished with a few rows of garter stitches and THE bind-off method. Initially I also worked two rounds of seed stitches at the sleeve openings, but Calmer had its own mind (elastic cotton, what can you do), so I ripped them out in the end.

Here are a couple of peeks:





Ah and I must show you the asymmetrical element I incorporated into the vest. Look at the left side, and ignore the marker thread please:


It's been so long since I first conceived the design--two and a half months to be accurate. Like many of my fellow designers here, I changed quite a few design elements on the way, so I am more than pleased to see that the original idea has come through (has it ;-)?) in the finished garment. Invaluable suggestions and opinions from fellow CALers, friends and readers have helped me out of several crucial problems, and your encouragements and reminders(!) have kept Indigo Flowers alive ;-). Thank you!

--Iris

Indigo Flowers IV

Cross-posted from my blog.

Earlier this week, I dug Indigo Flowers (not yet forgotten!) out of my stash and resumed the work. What really surprised me was that the flowers literally flew off the needles--must have been due to the training that I got from the complicated laces!

Here's the back--aren't the ripples and wavelets lovely? And, is it quite different from what you have expected? Not so wild, not so bold…


I actually stopped at six rows before the bind-off row so I still have a chance to tweak the neckline a bit. Once again there's a dilemma. On one hand, the wavy neckline should get fixed. On the other hand, a fancy collar won't work since the vest is supposed to have a simple cut. The fact that it will be paired up with a shirt/blouse should be considered as well. What do you think? Shall I finish the vest with a few lines of garter stitches along the back and the front neckline and let them fall back leisurely, or shall I do an I-cord bind-off?

With Indigo Flowers sitting quietly aside, I picked up my tiny little lace needles--oh how am I obsessed--to cast on a few stitches with my new favorite yarn (THE silk). Yup I am trying a new design, no I have not figured it out completely yet, but that's why we like knitting and designing so much ;-), correct?

Finally, having seen how beautiful this (Non-)Pencil Sketch had turned out to be, I thought it might be a good idea to modify the pattern and expand the size range--I just need a little more time!

When Hobbies Collide

When I'm not knitting, I like to play in the kitchen. And my two favorite things to do in the kitchen are to bake bread and make frozen treats...ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet.

So, what happens when a knitter becomes frustrated with mohair and wants to make some raspberry ginger sorbet?


On about row 8 of my daisy wrap (at approximately 200 stitches per row), I lost it. Mystery stitches appeared and I couldn't read the yarn to try and figure out what went wrong. And I wasn't about to try and tink mohair. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered reading that freezing mohair will help all the little fuzzies release each other. Since we have a side by side fridge, and a huge stock of frozen fish, frozen fruit and nuts from trader Joe's, the only room in the freezer was in the freezer can from the ice cream maker. The look on Geek Boy's face was priceless when he opened the freezer to find yarn there.

I did end up getting one more ball of KidSilk Haze in a pale pink color that complements the raspberry very well. I also decided to change the direction of my knitting on this. Rather than knitting across the shoulders, I decided to go length wise, fewer stitches would be needed, by about half. But, I miscalculated and it ended up too short. So, a time out for this project was in order.

Needless to say, I didn't get the wrap done in time for my sister's wedding (which was last Saturday). I plan to restart it this weekend. Rather than refreeze in order to frog, I'm sacrificing the small portion I knit to see how much a plain stitch will block out.

Indigo Flowers III

Cross-posted from my blog; click to read about Indigo Flowers and Indigo Flowers II.


These flowers have been on and off needles for sometime now, and when they are on the needles, I love how they grow (albeit slowly). Both yarns (Calmer and Zephyr) are smooth and soft, and I have yet to get tired of the cool colors. Good signs! I surely hope that this vest would become a wardrobe staple for me. Well, although there were a few moments that I had to pause and double-check my decreases and see on which row I was at, it took me less time to finish the second half front piece.

Now both front pieces are waiting for three-needle bind-off ;-):


Looking at the neckline, I frowned a bit and decided that some finishing touches might be necessary. I did not expect to get this irregular neckline, but hey, it's lace and lace is supposed to be wavy!

Now this problem directly leads me to another one: the back neckline would be wavy, too--vertical ripples will appear. My current plan is to finish it with a few rows of garter stitches. Or maybe I can add a ton of beads along the neckline?

Oh and I almost forgot to say that the two lace panels are not mirror-imaged. I thought about that before casting on the second half. Then I decided to make them identical, because:
1. It is easier to keep track of the shaping.
2. When sewing with a print fabric which has a very small pattern repeat (6 X 6 sts here), few people would try to match the pattern precisely. It's simply unnoticeable.



That's all for now. Maybe my next post will be the last for Indigo Flowers--stay tuned and happy knitting!

Iris

Indigo Flowers II

Cross-posted from my blog.


It's the weather. High temperature and high humidity had successfully prevented me from knitting anything for the past ten days. Instead, I spent my leisure time drawing, sewing, and reading art history books. When I finally picked up the smooth bamboo needles (last night), it was refreshing. The result, my friends, was this piece of Indigo Flowers.


The schematic sketches had been done a while ago. Shown here is the sketch for the sample. There is a bit of waist shaping, and the V-neck starts 2" (5 cm) below the sleeve openings.

There are several things to say about the design. Firstly it is done on two straight needles. I prefer knitting in the round, but when I am not 100% sure about the results--in this case it's the look and shape of the large lace panels--I work on straight needles to save time. Secondly, I started with a front piece instead of the back piece, for I have to see how the lace works at the shoulder, then decide how wide the back lace panel should be. Finally, the back neck shaping is undecided at the moment (see the question mark?); again it is because we are dealing with lace here, we just have to wait and see.


This vest has been sized up to 45" chest circumference, as I consider it a flattering piece for most women. Now that I have a large enough piece, I can see that the lace panel actually provides a lot of ease, and follows the curves smoothly. It seems unnecessary to change the shaping for larger sizes--it suits me well, I'm lazy ;-).

So far it has been smooth and easy, and my projection of the knitting time is surprisingly short (20 hours). I guess it's because of the needle size (US7, 4.5 mm) used. The very simple, 6 X 6 lace pattern has helped too. Only after I bound off the stitches for sleeve opening did I start to spend time thinking about how to distribute the decreases. After some sketching, I decided to decrease over the Calmer part until there are 6 stitches left, then decrease over the garter stitch border of the lace panel. Finally the outer most lace repeat will lose a few stitches--we'll be at the shoulder by then.

All right, that's all for now. I'll keep you updated ;-).

Iris

P.S. One of my friends pointed out that something's wrong with the photos. I have uploaded them again. Sorry for that.

Splendor in the Grass

At one point in time it seemed as if every blog I was reading was extolling the virtues of "Cracksilk Haze." At the same time, a local yarn shop was discontinuing Rowan yarns and was selling off the last of their Rowan inventory at a nice discount. So, I took that opportunity to treat myself to this...

...two skeins of Kidsilk Haze in a color they were calling Splendor.

That was probably two years ago. I always kinda knew what I wanted to do with it, but never got around to it. So, I was very excited to join the Create Along and finally get my butt in gear and do something with this.

My idea is very simple. So simple, in fact, that I'm a little embarrassed. You all are doing such beautiful intricate designs. My plan is to make a wrap. Not a triangle shawl. Just a plain, rectangular wrap. I have a lot of black and brown and dark blue dresses that I wear for summer events and weddings. They're all sleeveless. And I tend to get very cold in air conditioning. And while there is some charm to having my Geek Boy give me his suit jacket to stay warm, I think a simple wrap will be a bit more elegant looking.

I scoured my pattern books and found the Starlight Lace pattern in Barbara Walker's Second Treasury. It says "starlight," but to me it looks more like daisies, which happen to be my favorite flowers. And 2007 is supposed to be the year of my first lace project (I pick one new thing to try every year...2006 was socks). So, I think this was meant to be.

I swatched for this the other night on size 9s and a single repeat is two inches wide. (I'd post a picture of the swatch, but it slipped off the needles as I was finishing the last row.) The original plan was to just do 30-35 repeats across and go until I ran out of yarn and then add a border. However, after looking at Julia's picture of Mishka, I think I'll put some plain stitches in between. This should make things go a little faster and limit the potential for major, soul crushing oooppsies.

Things I've learned already. 1. Even from just a small, 2" swatch, I understand the whole thing about lace knitting needing pointy needles. 2. Metal and mohair are a scary combination. I have visions of losing whole chunks of work to an ill timed lap visit from one of my cats. 3. Most of all, it's really cool when what starts out looking like a big old mess suddenly looks like what you were aiming for.

I'm also toying with the idea of picking up a skein of a complementary color to do a bottom border. But I haven't totally sold myself on that yet.

Oh, and I'm hoping to have this finished in time for my little sister's wedding on June 30th (those of us in the wedding party are wearing sleeveless black dresses). But, I may be deluding myself on that one.

ttfn...amy

Create-Along: Back At It!

Cross-posted from MindofWinter

Mishka (named after Mames' beautiful GSD), lounging next to the meager notes I have taken.

I kicked off the Create-Along with a bang, swatching up a beautiful Barbara Walker lace pattern that I intended to use for a very simple shell. I was going to do a boatneck sheath style and run a single panel of lace down the left side. At the time I was very enthused about it, but the weeks wore on and it just never got knit.

I finally realized that the reason the shell wasn't happening, was that it wasn't happening in my head - I was truly bored with my own conception. I think the original idea was a good one, very classic, and something that I would get a lot of use from. But it just didn't grab me. I had been flipping through fashion magazines and pouring over runway knits, and I wanted something more current. Not trendy, necessarily, as I like clothing to stand the test of time, but more in the moment that what I had originally conceived. (I will probably design the sheath eventually, as well, when it is more what I am looking for.)

Marnie and I talked about my ideas pretty extensively one night, and discussed how we felt obligated to stick with the designs that we presented to the knitters in the CAL. She had been struggling with her design, Lily, as well, yet felt that for some reason she needed to stick with the conception she had started with. I realized about half-way through the conversation how silly we were. Why would we do this for the CALers, of all people? The whole point of the CAL was to show process, and almost nothing is more part of the process than scrapping design ideas, re-working and ripping! If you are afraid to do that, you are often left with a piece that you don't like, and which does not really represent your full creative process and personal perspective.

That is a long way of saying that I decided to scrap the original idea, and instead work out a new plan. Here it is: I am going to make a loosely-fitting hip-length top that will have hemmed casings at the top which I will run corded ties through to close. The motif will repeat with sections of large "rib" in between on both the front and the back. I would also like to do casings about three inches from the bottom edge with corded ties to create a blousing effect, but that is going to depend on whether I have enough yarn to manage it. I may have to re-work a bit to accommodate the minimal yardage I have going on here.

I was going to sketch it out for you, but I didn't do that yet in my *real* design process, so it's kind of silly to pretend that I did it for the CAL or the blog! I will probably sketch it soon, and I'll include the sketch here when I do. The thing that I have done already is a rough yardage estimation. I find that really useful, so I'll try to share a post on it soon. In the meantime, I will back at it and knitting away on Mishka - yay! It's about time.