Kimberlite Pipes

Swatching - Why You Must Block Your Swatch

While gauge is not critical for Kimberlite Pipes, it is important to make sure you have enough yarn. The gauge of lace can vary greatly depending on how you knit - loose lace knitters may require 30% or more yardage! That's why swatching is important, and it is imperative that you thoroughly block your swatch to get an accurate measure of gauge. If your gauge is too loose, try going down a needle size and swatch again.  If your gauge is too tight, go up a needle size. 

Here is the swatch before and after blocking. You can clearly see that trying to measure gauge without blocking leads to inaccurate results:

If we were to try to measure gauge before blocking, we would calculate that our gauge is way off. We're supposed to have 16 stitches to 4", but we get:

12 stitches/2.25" = 5.33 stitches/inch

If we multiply that by 4, we get over 21 stitches across 4"!  But after blocking, we get:

12 stitches/3" = 4 stitches/inch

Which is exactly what we should have: 16 stitches over 4 inches. Here's a close up of the diamond lace:

Lace Knitting - Preventing mistakes

There are lots of small things you can do to help prevent mistakes in your lace knitting. 

  • Use stitch markers between each repeated motif. 
  • Many lace patterns that are worked flat have backside rows that are mostly knits/purls. These are a great place to count your stitches!  Each time you're working across the backside (an even row) count the stitches in each repeat and make sure you have the right number between each marker. If you don't, figure out why!
  • You can optionally use lifelines, which may make it easier in the event you do have to frog. If you do use a lifeline, it's good practice to always put them in every time the motif is repeated. If there's a row that has a central double decrease, try putting them in on the row after. Whatever you decide, long tap on a stitch in the row where you add it, and make yourself a note in the pattern so you'll have a visual reference of where you added it. Here's how to add a lifeline:

Troubleshooting your lace

Uh-oh, you have a mistake! What could it be? First identify the type of problem you have from the list below, and then work through the relevant steps. Most of these videos show examples using the Solaris Wrap, but the process is the same regardless of what lace you're working. 

  1. One of my repeating motifs is short a stitch.
  2. I have a hole in the wrong place: I switched the order of the my yarnover and decrease.
  3. I have a problem further down in my work!

1. Short a stitch

Follow these steps if you have a repeat that's short a stitch.

  1. Count the stitches in the repeats on either side of the one that's short. Is there an adjacent repeat that has an extra stitch? If so, you probably had a yarnover escape over a marker. Just move the marker (or squish the yarnover back over the marker) to get the yarnover back into position. 
  2. Most likely scenario: If adjacent repeats have the correct number of stitches, most likely, you just forgot a yarnover.  Check the motif against the pattern. When you find where the missing yarnover is, just lift up the yarn from the row below and place it on your holding needle, then work the stitch like it was there all along.  
  3. If you can't find a missing yarnover, check for an extra decrease. If you have an extra decrease, just undo it and rework the two stitches as individually with the yarn strand from the prior row. It'll probably be a little tight, but that's ok.  
  4. If you haven't found it yet, look for a dropped stitch, or a missing yarnover several rows down. If it's a dropped stitch, you'll need to work it all the way back up. 

2. A hole in the wrong place

As long as you find the mistake within a few rows (1-2) of making it, it's generally pretty easy to fix. Just drop the incorrect yarnover off your needle, and pick it back up where it's supposed to be, as shown in this video.

3. A deeper problem

If you make a mistake many rows down, try dropping down to fix it! If it doesn't work out, you can just frog it, and you're no worse off. In this video, we show how to drop down to a lifeline, but as long as you go one row at a time, you won't need the lifeline. You can always count the loose strands behind your work to figure out which row you're on.