Battling Brioche and First days of social distancing

TheEnabler and I are largely staying home, except brief trips for fresh bread, and it’s a little odd to not have the house entirely to myself and the cat during the day. Luckily for us, we prioritized having a separate room for my office, which means he can work at the (extended) dinner table and we aren’t in the same room. Since I spend loads of time on calls, this will be critical to his ongoing sanity and general mental health.

Because my job is already 100% work-from-home/remote, the new normal doesn’t really change my work/craft time balance. If anything, this first week has been a little more hectic at work, leaving me more drained, as we deal with cancelled events and re-prioritizing various projects.

I have made some exciting strides on some of my projects though! My Twisted Lines top is in the final stages, all sewn up with the collar knitted on. I actually sat down and did a careful mattress stitch up the sides, and it looks really tidy.

Overall, I’m really happy with the fit. It’s got a little negative ease, but looks great and the alterations to the increase/decreases and short rows worked out. It is a tad shorter than I intended, so I’ll try it on with some of my skirts after I finish the armholes. If needed, I can unpick the bottom cast-on and add a few more rows of garter to the bottom to length it a little. I’ve never done this before, but I know it’s supposed to be possible.

Mostly though, I’ve been chugging along on my Fireworks Festival shawl. This morning I finished the last row of the “Lights” section, and have just started in on the first “Fireworks”, so things are about to require more attention.

A couple Ravelry projects mention how confusing/hard the directions are, so I thought I’d talk a little about what I’m doing to make sure I don’t get lost. Let’s be clear – this is not a “beginner” pattern, nor even a “beginner brioche”* pattern. In addition to the brioche, it has multiple charts, “syncopated” brioche stitches (where you reverse the normal front knit/ back purl to front purl/ back knit), the charts don’t repeat, and after a while the wrong side rows aren’t listed. It’s 1600 meters of fingering weight yarn on small needles. Add all these things up, and this isn’t for the faint of heart.

That said, there are tricks to keep it manageable, so you’re tackling things one row at a time. The instructions have charted and written versions to accommodate individual preference. One snag: unlike most shawls which are symmetrical, the “left/center/right” charts aren’t symmetrical.

In the top left and top right images above, the orange stitch markers show the last column of blue stitches from the previous chart. I’m using these to keep track of where I am in the next chart. Each two rows adds a column of stitches, so I can count the blue knit stitches to see where I am. The green stitch markers show the edges of the Left and Right sections of the Lights 3 chart. Notice how on the right side the green and orange are in the same knit column, but on the left side the green is further to the right? Then on the bottom image, you can see the really cute bee marker I got in my last Undercover Otter Clan of Igor shipment – this marks the break between repeat 1 and repeat 2 of the Center section. But it’s not actually centered – the center of the shawl is where the orange streaks (syncopated knit stitches) are just to the left of it.

If you are expecting nice tidy symmetry, you won’t get it in the charts even though the shawl itself is symmetrical (I think this is actually pretty darn clever!) I’ve found a generous use of locking stitch markers to be extremely helpful in not getting myself muddled. Some people like to say stitch markers are cheating, but in this pattern they are necessary. Certain markers are clearly indicated in the directions, and the following rows assume you’ve placed them in giving directions. But I added more of my own where I found it helpful.

The ones I marked to show the last column created in the previous chart has proved particularly useful as a replacement to using a stitch counter. First, I forget to click the stitch counter even more than usual with brioche since you go across each row twice. In addition though, it’s given an easy check to make sure I did the increase on the right side row on both the right and left edge. In particular, while I had a cold a couple weeks ago and was just getting started I’m ashamed to admit just how many times I forgot that increase and had to rip back a row or two. But without that marker… I would have been further along before I realized the right and left sides hadn’t increased at the same rate.

What tricks do you use to keep track of charts?

*I am not saying a beginner couldn’t do this shawl. Just that it’s not what one would label “beginner” and that only a certain type of beginner ought to tackle this: either the brilliantly talented or one with an ego of granite.