Help work out lace panel please

Hello
King cole 4838 cardigan.
I have started with the back rather than the 2 fronts.

It’s bottom up with a section of rib, then right across lace with a 12 row repeat, done twice. Then it changes to stocking stitch with a lace panel up the centre and the panel is edged with 1 rev st st.
The pattern tells me to work the centre panel of 25 stitches as set so I have to work out which 25 stitches these are in each row of my 12 row repeat.

I think I’ve done okay working out most of the rows and have jotted down some notes to help me keep my pattern set through the lace panel.
However, I need help with row 11.
I realise that I should also read the fabric as I work and perhaps it will be easier to read when I get there but I’m finding the lace more challenging to read.

103 stitches
38 st st, 1 rev st st - 25 panel - 1 rev st st, 38 st st
Row 9 increases the number of panel stitches to 33
Row 10 is easy, just working ws row

Row 11 starts with
39 - 33 panel- 39 (111 stitches)
I need to get back to 25 panel and 103 total stitches.

Original lace row 11 reads
K4, * k2tog, yfwd, s1, k2tog, psso, yfwd, s1, k1, psso, k1, rep from * to last 3 sts, k3

I worked out this rep uses 8 sts, working from beginning of this row is st st instead of lace means when I get to the panel I would be mid repeat and enter the panel at:
K2tog, psso, yfwd, s1, k1, psso, k1 (5 sts but surely this won’t be right as there is no slipped stitch to use in the passover?) (I need this to produce minus 1 stitch count)
Then 3 times the 8 stitch repeat (24 stitches) (producing a minus 6 stitch count)
Then end the panel with a partial repeat which needs to use up 4 stitches
But
K2tog, yfwd, s1, k2tog, psso this uses 5 so breaks the panel (I also need this to produce a minus 1 stitch count)
(Total minus 8 stitches. 111 - 8 = 103)

So I need to change the entry and exit of the panel on this row
Should I change the panel entry
From k2tog psso, yfwd, s1, k1, psso, k1
To s1, k1, psso, yfwd, s1, k1, passo, k1
???

And should I change the panel exit
From K2tog, yfwd, s1, k2tog, psso (5 stitches)
To k2tog, yfw, s1, k1, passo (4 stitches which is the correct number)
???

What do you think? Will this make the lace panel work the best it can or will it mess it up?

Thanks for putting up with me!
I know this is a very long question, but I have also tried to resolve the problem myself… but don’t know if this is the right solution.

Thanks

The best way to work this is as you suggest, to look at the previous rows. Make the lace pattern align with those earlier rows. It’s sometimes easier to see this if you stretch out the lace as it will eventually be blocked.
I would work out where to place the lace so that you have the repeats you need, then work the remaining sts on each side in stockinette.


Thanks for replying.
I can’t do it.
I have done 7 rows (life line shows beginning of panel section) and I can read it well enough to see its wrong but not well enough to know what is right.

I think I’m wrong on row 1 and everything after that is not going to be right. I’ve spent ages working these rows out but have some big error.

Original row 1 is
103 stitches
K4, *yfwd, s1, k1, psso, k1, k2tog, yfwd, k1, rep from * to last 3sts, k3

Panel row 1 is
103 stitches
K38, p1, patt 25sts, p1, k38

I have done
K38, p1 – k1, (yfwd, s1, k1, psso, k1, k2tog, yfwd, k1) 4 times – p1, k 38

Perhaps there should have been a yfwd at the beginning and end of the panel?
This would add 2 to the stitch count which I don’t think is supposed to happen (beginning of pattern says only count stitches after rows 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11,12) but its my only guess of what went wrong.
Row 2 of panel section is
P38, k1, patt 25, k1, p38
As it says patt 25 I on row 2 I thought the yfwds wouldn’t be included in the lace panel because wouldn’t that result in 27 stitches?

I’m so confused and lost.

It looks like lining up the center line of the two motifs will be a good guide. It seems to me that they are aligned vertically but aren’t alternating horizontally. Instead of staggering the motifs you’ve put the same ones on top of each other.

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Thanks for trying to help.
I’m so lost.
I don’t understand which repeats go where or how to continue.
I know what you mean by working it out from the centre and I can find the centre but have no clue what stitches go there to produce the pattern.
I think this is just too hard for me.

This photo shows the vertical alignment.

It may help to work a couple of pattern repeats on some scrap yarn and mark the ends of the repeats. After working several rows you may be able to see how the round sections and the squared sections begin and end.

You’re kind helping me.
I think I’m a lost cause though! I’ve done 4 lots of these 12 row repeats and still never learned what was producing what… just following instructions blindly!

I’ve tried again.
Certainly my previous row 1 should have had a yfwd at either end of the lace panel and without it the whole pattern was off.
I think I’ve done row 1 correctly or if it’s wrong it’s an improvement.
I definitely was not expecting a change in the number of stitches other than on those rows I’d already been warned about in the pattern. This panel section changes number every RS row and there are no stitch counts in the pattern so I’m guessing throughout.

Thank you for the picture. I am able to see the verticals and I have a marker on my centre stitch to try to work outwards… but figuring out what I’m supposed to knit feels impossible. Still, I’m trying.

It took all day but I got row 3, it may or may not be correct. The verticals are lining up and I can even see the little groups of shapes forming, but even so I don’t know if i was supposed to put the yarn over either end or not (it was yfwd in patt but as it now sits next to a purl stitch the yarn was already in front so I took the yarn over and forward). I sort of think it needs the yarn over to produce the next hole but I’m on row 5 now and have no clue what to do with the yarn over stitch.

He is a picture of the new 4 rows

The rep is
S1, k2tog, psso, yfwd, s1, k1, psso, k1, k2tog, yfwd

Blue is my yarn over from row 3 I don’t know how to work it as it would otherwise be a part of a k2tog followed by a yfwd but I can’t k2tog as there is only one there
Do I just k1 and yfwd?
Or somehow attach is to the rev st st a purl 1) edge just outside the lace panel? I think this would mess with the edge and probably not the answer.

It’s like deciphering alien symbols… but…
I believe
Red is brought together with s1 k2tog psso
Orange is put in a yfwd
Green is brought together with s1 k1 psso, k1, k2tog

My problem is what to do with that blue stitch. Do you know :smirk:?

(Then I’ll only have another 4 rows to decipher!)

That looks right. You’ve got what I think of as the circles in a checkerboard with the squares.

Make sure that the yarn overs are balanced by the decreases.

The yarn overs don’t balance with the decreases.
I was expecting some of the rows not to add up as in the pattern instructions it says don’t count stitches after row 3 or 4.
Row 3 increases lots of stitches,
Row 4 is WS row no change
Row 5 decreases stitches

Rows 3 and 5 balance each other out BUT
The pattern says this panel is 25 stitches and when I worked row 1 with 25 stitches it did not line up, that was the first photo, the vertical bent to meet the panel edge.
When I added a yfwd each end the pattern looks right and the vertical colums run straight.
But this means row 1 changed my stitch count to 27 instead of 25

Row 3 has increased by 10
Row 5 will decrease hy 10
But I will still end up with 27 instead of 25.

Do you know what I should do with the stitch marked with a blue arrow? It would have been part of a k2tog but there is only 1 stitch?

I’ve done it!!!

Frogged 3 times.
I kept telling myself “it’s just maths, it’s just maths” and re wrote the rows 4 times. The final time I discovered had exactly the same as I’d worked out the first time around for all but 2 rows.
So, in fact I’d been right for 10 out of the 12 rows.

I know where I went wrong (not taking into account all those increases on row 3) but now I can also “read” the knitting which totally amazes me. A few days ago it was like looking at Chinese characters and trying to translate them using a French - English dictionary!

I really thought this would have to be binned, but now I am amazed to be continuing.

Happy dances!

Thank you so much for your support.

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