Knitting from Charts

I'm still knitting away on the Heirloom Shawl and now I've got to the bottom border, where the pattern changes. This pattern has been teaching me quite a lot (in a tearing my hair out sort of way).

One thing I've learned is I'd rather knit from charts (who knew?)

Once upon a time there was a knitter who didn't like knitting from charts. This knitter was a word person, not a picture person. Then this knitter decided that there were lots of beautiful lace patterns out there and many of them were charted. So this knitter decided she'd better learn to love charts. Not being one to resist a challenge (you've heard that before, right?) she decided to start with this:



The Siberian Winter Shaw from Blackberry Ridge.

This pattern comes with both the chart and the words, so she thought that would be a good place to start. She put herself on her honour to read the charts not the words, and it nearly killed her, but she did it.

Then the knitter decided she needed to learn more about knitting from charts. So she decided to knit this:



Flirty Ruffles from Fiddlesticks Knitting

There were no words (except right at the very beginning) but she persevered and she made it. (Many congratulations to Dorothy at Fiddlesticks for the clarity of her charts.)

Then she decided she needed to read something about knitting from charts (she's a word person, remember?), so she did some research and came across this and it all fell into place.

So that's the story of how I learned to knit from charts