Creating Charts

I went into WH Smith today to buy myself a small ruler and some graph paper. It's a long time since I have used graph paper (Madsadgirl left school a long time ago and didn't do maths during the last two years of school) but I needed some to be able to draw out the charts that will be needed for my knitting designs.

The charts will eventually have to be put onto the computer so that I can print out the patterns and create the electronic copies that are also required. But for playing around with designs and doing my test pieces graph paper is just the thing to use. I bought some graph paper on Tuesday but didn't look closely enough to the paper that I bought and it wasn't until I had got it home and tried to use it that I realised that 2mm squares just weren't big enough to allow me to put the various symbols into them.

The pad that I bought today has 5mm squares and I have already managed to draft out the designs for one of the socks that I am creating. Having managed to work out what stitches I wanted where to create the pattern, I then had to redraft the charts with the designs upside down because I am knitting the socks from the cuff down to the toes. Unfortunately I am unable to post photographs of the socks that I am designing because of the competition rules, but once the competition closing date has passed I will see what I can do.

I have also decided to design a lace scarf for the competition. This also requires lots of charts to be drawn up to work from. I have done the first chart and I have managed to knit this chart. As I want the scarf to be a bit like a sampler I have to work out a number of charts to provide a good range of designs but there must also be some form of linking between them, so I have decided to make it themed on butterflies and flowers/leaves. To ensure that the designs are the right way up when the scarf is worn it will be knitted in two halves and then the two grafted together. This will be a first for me as I have always knitted lace designs that could be viewed from either direction. I'm quite looking forward to the challenge.