Sunday, February 21, 2010

Reverse-engineering (literally) and a contest!

As you know, I've been knitting an afghan out of lace panels:

I'm planning on a 6-panel throw, and it occurred to me it'd be nice if three of the panels slant the other way, for symmetry. I might even pair them. But to do that, I had to reverse the lace pattern. As well as putting the yos at the end rather than the start of the first row, and progressing right instead of left, the decreases (on both sides) had to be changed, so they'd slant nicely.

Fortunately for me, the original decreases were a skp and a p2tog-tbl. That made the reverses of them k2tog and p2tog — the easiest two (imo) to execute! Because the yos aren't reversed, there is a slight difference in the appearance, but honestly I think this is not too bad so far (note it is stretched out here, because still on the needles):



As for the contest: Leave me a comment telling me one challenging thing you've attempted with a craft, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a copy of the February 2009 (click here for an overview of that issue) Knit'n'Style magazine. I'm destashing five magazines over the next couple of weeks so you'll see more of these opportunities. I'll draw a name next Saturday, February 27 morning so get your comment in by Friday! But don't worry, more mags being offered soon.

7 comments:

Cocoonivus said...

I think your reverse engineering worked out well! I tend to like mirror symmetry as well, but I'm not sure I would have thought of working out the reversed pattern.

There are some interesting looking patterns in that magazine. Please count me in for the giveaway!

Cocoonivus said...

And now the second part of my entry! ;^)

I'm currently knitting a pair of socks where, for the first time, I'm using different cast on, heel, and bind off methods than my usual.

I usually do short row toes and heels. This time, I've used Judy's Magic Cast-on for the toe, and I'm going to work an afterthought heel.

Then there's a bind off that I want to try, Jenni's Stretch Bind Off (or something like that).

So, even though I'm otherwise doing my usual k2p2 ribbed socks, I'm trying three new things!

jae said...

Looks like a match to me val.

my most recent challenge was the raglan tee...having not used a pattern after the neck portion on this knit in the round neck down thing, i think I knit the sides three times trying to incorporate different stith motifs and then just decided on run o the mill decreases. then i knit the bottom border twice...same thought process and don't get me started on the sleeves.

Nonetheless, it was a success, i've worn it to work a few times since finishing it and its perfect for the lite winters here in socal.

sheep#100 said...

Way to go! Makes my reshaping a cardigan's shoulders look rather tame...

FUZZARELLY said...

Well, my challenge was to take a doily pattern written in german, and charted with totally unfamiliar symbols, and create a shawl from my own hand spun and hand knit angora and silk fiber.

I found translations for the symbols online and knit away until I ran out of doily pattern.

Oops. Shawl too small, so I charted additional patterns and continued, finally ending with a ruffle. I cast off 3000 stitches at the end.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Earin Marybird said...

My biggest craft challenge? Teaching myself how to work with a kiln and not having a clue.

Um, yes, the kiln really was too hot to tuck that last piece in (it exploded leaving bits of clay stuck in the other glazed pieces).

Not following the advice of the experts at the clay store but my ex boyfriend about how long to leave my pieces in. Result? It not only totally vaporized all my stuff it melted a lot of the inside insulation of my brand new kiln.

I could go on but that's about the worst.