This is so much fun to make: the pattern, the softness of the yarn, the subtle, almost watery gradations in the colors of the yarn, and above all, the way the texture of the stitches works with the softness of the yarn to make something so nice to touch in every part of the project.

When I first saw this pattern, I thought it looked medieval in a lovely way. The more subtle, antique looking colors of tosh, while luscious, don’t look so good on me, so I went with more vivid hues. Maybe…medieval, still, but reserved for royalty.

Plus I’ve been on a kick of reading about Henry VIII and all his tragic wives, so this gives me one more thing to knit whilst studiously watching all the many movie versions of that particular tale.

Swatch

Lesson learned: keep your floats loose when slipping stitches, to allow the diamond shape to open up fully and wide, rather than staying bunched together, like it is in my swatch (see photo).

Counting Stripes

I found it very confusing, in Part 1, when I counted the garter stripes on the scarf photographed for the pattern and found 11, but, following the pattern, found only instructions for 8. Counted and recounted, and couldn’t figure out where the extra 3 had gone--had I overlooked a page of instructions? Had I missed a whole set of increases? Why was my stitch count right, but my number of stripes wrong? Thank the fiber gods for Ravelry: running to my computer for help, I find every FO photo that shows the full scarf shows only 8 garter stripes, too. (Except for the designer’s sample, of course, the same one photographed for the pattern.) So I’ve done it right. When the pattern says the pictures show a different version, that’s at least one thing it might mean.

Chart 1
Whoa, this part is spicy!! I know from the swatch that once I get into it, it becomes easier, because you can read your stitches and the slip-stitch rows help everything line up, visually--but I’ll tell ya, from the land of the very first rows, this takes some close attention. It’s humbling!

Okay, just for a few rows: round 4 or 5, the pattern appears, and now I can read my knitting and don’t have to count every stitch. Whew.

I am not a big chart fan, as a knitter--I don’t like having to look back and forth frequently from my work to a piece of paper, I’d rather memorize a repetition, and chant it quietly in my head to myself, and “learn” the pattern, rather than refer to a dot or a line with every motion my hands take.
So I “translated” for myself, thinking of this chart as repeated patterns of 3 and 5, alternating, and separated by angled ribs worked in 6 stitches. So any given row will be some variation of “3, 6rib, 5, rib, 3, rib, 5, rib”. At the beginning of each row I read it carefully to figure out what the 3 and 5 look like for that given row (is there a slip stitch, etc.), which way the ribbing goes, and which increase (if any) is used by the markers, and then working across the row is really easy. The next row, the stitches may change (purl vs. knit for the opposite side) but the overall rhythm stays the same.

Also, it’s pretty easy to see if you get off track at all, so it gets points for that, and not needing a lot of stitch-counting, after those first couple of rows.

Charts 2A, 2B, 2C

Well, I got off track somewhere switching from one section to the other. I’ll tell ya what went wrong, once I figure it out.

Okay: it’s fine. I didn’t mess up at all. My warning is just this: on row 43, the way you work the mirrored double increases at the section markers is slightly different from how you work the same mirrored double increases within each section. The slipped stitches are just to the side of the slipped-stitch row, not the stitches actually growing out of it, this time. But just follow the chart closely, it’s all good if you count and are careful.

In this section, I am particularly glad I took time to do the swatch in advance. Several times I had questions about how a particular part is supposed to look, and it was useful to have the swatch to refer to. Also, note that the swatch is a simplified version of the actual chart, so it’s a way of getting the basics down before those basics get applied to a different form, like learning the alphabet as preparation for reading.

I think the trick in this part is to keep the floats really loose behind the slipped-stitch “medallions”, and also in the increase sections near the stitch markers. It’s hard to work the increase stitches by the markers, unless the row below is loose.

I’m giving this pattern both 5 stars and a rating of “difficult”. It’s a nice challenge. I kept reminding myself “It’s JUST a scarf--a piece of flat fabric!”. But at the same time, it’s a very well-written and edited pattern--long, but all of the parts come in useful, once I got to that section, and once I paid close attention. It’s an extremely satisfying knit, to see the chart come together in the form of a beautiful textile. Really a wonderful addition to any knitter’s set of skills, in my opinion.

I still have to take pictures in natural light, to show the colors properly on the FO, but I was so excited when I came home and it was done blocking, I had to get a few pictures in right away. The “in progress” pictures are better color, the “terra” is reddish orange, not just red, and the blue has green in it, as well. I’ll get daylight pictures soon.