Little Secret is finally finished and it’s beautiful. The knitting took about 10 weeks being interrupted by various things such as painting the house, multiple visitors and other distractions and necessary activities (really?). It was found not a wise course to knit after a long busy day. There are mistakes but none I can’t live with and my nightmare of a dropped stitch unravelling during blocking did not eventuate.
I love the garter stitch so no wrong side.

Yarn: 85g Colourmart Cashmere 2/28nm
Needles: Chiaogoo 3.0mm circulars
Size: Blocked dimensions are 60cm x 210cm
Knitting: The start was a little rocky frogging the second border knit a somewhat carelessly, so happy I did! Once I had both borders finished I knit Chart 3 ‘2-at-a-time’ so that when it was done, it was done!
KnitCompanion: I can’t recommend this app highly enough, so many useful features to keep on track. I learnt to use templates to add the repetitions of the charts. It takes 8 repeats of Chart 3 before it aligns again with the same rows of Charts 1 & 2 as the first row. Another tip is to use different inverted colours for odd and even rows, add a stitch marker to match at the start of each row. My odd rows had a green stitch marker so for those rows the chart was green. At a glance I could check which direction I should be knitting the chart.
Joining: I put a lifeline in the first of the last 3 (2) garter rows just in case. After the garter rows I knit 3 garter rows in contrast yarn at the end the first row using the next edge row from Chart 1a &1b. The stitches were then put onto scrap yarn (thread). Next with the pieces flat and pinned out I grafted them together. This way the edge stitches were grafted in pattern, not a perfect job and not even sure if it is a good idea but I’m happy with how it turned out. I can do Kitchener on the needles but this is how I learned to graft for machine knitting and I thought it might be less stressful. It was easy and took a bit over an hour, no alcohol needed.
Blocking: 3 hot soapy washes and 3 hot rinses (see photo of water colour from each) before a good squeeze and a good block. I aimed for more width rather than more length without making the points too different. Pre-block size ~45x190cm; Blocked to 60X210 cm.
Photos: It’s so hard to photograph especially as I’m a much a novice photographer as Shetland Lace knitter!