Cold Mountain Journey: Knitting Lace (or anything else)

I made it to 15 rows!  It took a little ripping back and a bit more concentration than I'm used to having to give my knitting (sorry, Hubby!), but I made it.  With a weekly goal of 15 rows, we will be knitting this till February 2014, but that's OK.  If I felt rushed to knit this lace project it would never get done (I know me!).

Today's tips for knitting lace apply to other projects as well--cables, color work, even plain old garter stitch sometimes.

1) Count often!  Because there is a "resting row" between the lace rows, by the time I discover I missed a YO, it's 2 rows back and the ominous black clouds appear directly overhead within minutes.  The answer? Count. Then count again. Don't move off the lace row until you know it's right, then knit the resting row and count it, too. Find the mistakes early so it's less heartbreaking when you have to go back and fix them.

2) Use markers!  Stitch markers are our friends, and I use them all the time.  For this project I have markers right after and right before the border rows (4 stitches on one side and 5 on the other) and in between the pattern repeats (which are 30 stitches wide).  This means I only have to count (and re-count, see item #1, above) up to 30, which saves me time and makes this more like Fun and less like, well, Not Fun.  And knitting really ought to be Fun at least part of the time, right?

For those of you participating in this KAL, hang in there, especially if you're new to lace knitting or using charts or if you have your own version of the Lace Prom Shrug Fiasco of '12.  I tell my beginning knitting students this and it bears repeating:

You are bigger than this yarn and those needles and that pattern.  

You are the boss. YOU CAN DO IT!