To take a break from baby gifts, I picked up my green lace tablecloth this weekend past. I’ve now made my way to the end of the charted patterns.

The last two rows of the second chart are a bit confusing for non-German speaking users. I finally figured out that they refer to a crocheted bind-off. The lower row symbol (either the number 2 or 3) indicates how many knit stitches are to be gathered up in a fastening single crochet, and the upper row number symbols indicate how many chain stitches are to be created between those single crochets. But I didn’t do the indicated bind-off.

I estimate that if bound off now, my piece would be about 45-48 inches across. I wanted a piece that was 52 inches or more around. That means I now am off in the land of improvisation. I did the penultimate charted row by working k3-tog or k2-tog as indicated, but adding the “subtracted” stitches via yarn-overs, trusting that I could get away with one row that didn’t add a ton of stitches to increase total piece diameter.

Now comes the problem of what to do next. I do have to add a considerable bit of depth. I don’t think that an edging strip knit around the circumference will be deep enough all by itself. I think I’ll have to work another coordinating segment, knit center-out before launching into any as-yet-unspecified pointy or dagged edging. Unless I can find one of the particularly deep edgings that sports “collar properties” – that is significantly wider along the free side compared to the attachment side, so that it naturally conforms to a collar-like, graceful curve. Now I know there are quite a few of those out there, but whether their repeat length, increase ratio, and motifs work well with the stitch count and pattern of the base cloth will all contribute to my final decision.

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