Feeling emboldened by my recent success, I decided to take on another lace project: the Highland Triangle Shawl from Folk Shawls. I chose it because it's got three separate elements -- the basic triangle, an inner border, and the outer edging, applied row-by-row. Seemed like a good test of my skills.
In a word: holy mother of god. It is a test indeed. I'm struggling with the basic triangle. The problem is with the lace pattern. The Cat's Paw shawl was sets of vertically aligned 7-stitch pattern repeats. I could place markers, and repeat the pattern across the row. When the sides grew another 7 stitches I would place a marker and work additional repeats of the chart. Easy! I was actually working on this one in the streetcar! I could work it while watching TV!
The chart for the triangle is a mind-binder. It has repeating elements, but the basic pattern repeats at an offset, and the repeats blend into each other. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how you add increased stitches into the pattern.
I tried placing markers, but because of the pattern alignment, there's no good position for them that doesn't get wrapped up into the double decrease. So each row requires me to read the chart and count stitches. Which means that it's a total attention-absorber. I can't do anything else while I'm working it -- no TV watching, no talking. And because I need the chart in front of me, I can't work it while in the car, either. Sigh.
I shall persevere.
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