My red doilies are still damp, so there’s no unpinning them for show and tell today, but I’m still working on the Wave Scarf, so I’ll report on that instead. I have taken yet another significant departure from reality as described by the original pattern.

First, I decided to dispense with knitting from the center out to make the two ends identical when worn. I didn’t like the visible seam-like line down the center of the back. So I just knit the piece end to end. Then I decided I wanted to make the thing longer, so I did. Which means that the carefully worked out in-pattern directions for picking up around the edge and working the small eyelet divider rows are all not going to work. I looked at the numbers of the original and working out the pattern row multiple vs. the available stitches for attachment. And then I winged it.

I ended up with more than 17 repeats of the 12 row cycle. I had about 20. Picking up stitches around the outside, I needed more than the original, so I ended up with 80 stitches per short end, plus 420 stitches per side (7×60), plus 8 more (2 for each corner). Then I worked one row of plain knit all the way around to confirm my stitch count (adding a YO on either side of each pair of corner stitches).

Now I’m doing something that’s a cognate for the eyelet row. Since my total is divisible by 4, I’m working (K2, k1, YO) units all the way around – ignoring those corner stitches for now. I’ll do another row of plain knit next, then look into whether or not I need to play with the row ratio for one of the several versions of the Print of the Wave family companion borders I have in the house (the variant supplied with the pattern, plus two in Heirloom Knitting, plus at least one other in yet another lace book on my shelf.)

How did I get all those stitches onto something manageable? I’m using the two-circ method. One circ holds one end and one side, the other holds the remaining stitches. I may not enjoy using that method for socks (for me DPNs are faster) but for flogging a zillion stitches into submission, it can’t be beat.

Do I recommend just winging it in lace knitting? Probably not if your constitution can’t take the searing realization that you’ve done something stupid and have to rip back miles of work. Since I don’t bother with lifelines, that ripping can be harrowing. Why do I do it? I can’t say. Maybe I just like living on the edge in this one tiny facet of my life. If you’ve been reading along for a while you have seen that whenever I am given two paths knitting-wise, I’ll always chose the more risky or more arduous option. Getting there may be half the fun, but I want to chug up craggy mountains and press on through jungle perils on the way.

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