Mercy!

 

And the lace knitting saga continues!  Never thought I would have a love/hate relationship with knitting but I may have!  Actually, this lace top is one of the most challenging knitting projects I've taken on.  BUT one of the good things is my sister is also knitting this same top!  Of course, we can express our frustration and issues with each other, which is SO nice!   It's no fun swearing to yourself when you make a mistake or can't find the mistake!  

You can see the pattern on Ravelry here.

I also decided rather than knitting the top based on written instructions I would go back to reading the chart(s)!  The last time I read a chart to knit from was my lace shawl (here).  The problem I (along with my sister) have is looking at your knitting then looking back up to the pattern and losing your place!  Knitters will understand this...especially if your have several stitches repeated in each repeat section.  Again, something a knitter will understand.  Our repeats are 36 stitches per repeat (total of 288 stitches) and 8 repeat segments (=288 - see at least I know my math!).

These are the knitting instructions for one of the charts we need to follow (there are 3 different charts).  The stitches aren't difficult and the pattern is very well written!  It's just so easy when your hubby sneaks up behind you and says "hey!" and you drop your knitting and lose stitches or the dogs start barking, which also startles you or you have to lift dogs off the sewing table (I try to knit in my sewing room where it's quiet but dogs like to lay up on the table in front of me).  I've had to rip out more stitches than I can count!  HA

You can see some of the pattern here...

And I only have 45 rows complete so far!  Again for knitters, this is knitted in the round so no side seams.  For non-knitters, it means this top is being knitted from the collar down...you can see my scalloped edge at the top (see pattern pic in the first pic of this post).  Once I get past the chest area, it's all straight knitting, which should go faster!  

Until then, I don't drink my wine until I'm finished knitting for the day!!  Now you can see why!  HA