Hatrack River Forum: Knitting pattern help

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Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :

I'm trying to follow a chart for a knitted lace pattern and am confused about the terminology. pattern

If you scroll down the page to the pattern chart, the legend says that a black square means "no stitch". I'm quite confused how there can be no stitch. Am I supposed to drop the stitch (unlikely as there are up to 5 "no stitches" in a row)? Or just slip the stitch (in which case, why not just say to slip the stitch)?

Can any of you more accomplished/experienced knitters help me figure this out?

Arigato! [Big Grin]

Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

I think that the problem is that the number of stitches changes from row to row. To compensate for this in the chart, they have put "no stitch" in some of the boxes to make room in the grid for rows that have more stiches. Essentially those boxes don't exist on that row.

Posted by imogen (Member # 5485) on :

The Rabbit is right - it's just a way of making the chart look neater.

Just ignore those boxes and keep going with the pattern.

It may help to read through the written instructions with the chart to see how it works for a couple of rows. So for the first row (assuming no repeats), the chart says s1, k4, k2tog [4 black squares] p2 k3 [4 black squares]p2 k4 k2tog [2 black squares] p1, while the written instructions are Sl 1, K4, K2tog, P2, K3, P2, K4, K2tog, P1 - just the chart with the black squares omitted.

Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :

Thanks. I've always knitted from written instructions instead of a chart. It makes sense now.

[Group Hug]