![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI'm going to be starting my John Watson scarf (here) as soon as my sprained finger stops feeling sore. But - working on it, especially working on it if I take it to ChicagoTARDIS, which is the plan, means that I'm going to be picking up and putting down a complex project rather often.
So I'm trying something to help deal with the complexity. It's a lot of initial setup work, but it should make the actual knitting take less brain power.
First, I made a row counter chain 6 links long. (It's a 12-row pattern.) Each link has a different-colored bead on it. The end marker is a little alphabet Jbecause it was left over when I was buying alphabet beads for sock markers - H(eel), I(nstep), S(ole) for "John," naturally.
Second, I retyped the pattern, changing the font text to match the color of each bead. For example, the first link in the counter chain has a pink bead, so Rows 1 and 2 were retyped in pink, with % added at the start of Row 1 to mark that it is the row that the counter begins on. (Row 2 is the row in which you knit back to the counter. Then Row 3 reads Row 3% (new counter link) and is printed in pale blue.
This will, I think, make it much easier to keep track of which row I'm knitting on.
Third, I redid the newly color-coded pattern as a table. So now instead of Row 1 reading P6, K2, P6, K2, pm, p19, K2, P6, K2, P6 (in pink), the initial cable section, the chevron section, and the second cable section have separate cells on the same table row. This makes it very easy to focus on which part of the scarf is being knit at any time. The cell divisions will be marked on the actual scarf with stitch markers, of course.
And finally, within each cell, complex directions have been broken into separate text rows. So the cable instructions now read:
P2, CF4
P2, CF6
P2
... instead of one line of text that has to be puzzled through. The chevrons have been broken down the same way; at one point the rows read:
P5
K1, P1, K1
P3
K1, P1, K1
P5
I *think* all of this will draw the eye more easily than blocks of text. I'll let you know...
So I'm trying something to help deal with the complexity. It's a lot of initial setup work, but it should make the actual knitting take less brain power.
First, I made a row counter chain 6 links long. (It's a 12-row pattern.) Each link has a different-colored bead on it. The end marker is a little alphabet J
Second, I retyped the pattern, changing the font text to match the color of each bead. For example, the first link in the counter chain has a pink bead, so Rows 1 and 2 were retyped in pink, with % added at the start of Row 1 to mark that it is the row that the counter begins on. (Row 2 is the row in which you knit back to the counter. Then Row 3 reads Row 3% (new counter link) and is printed in pale blue.
This will, I think, make it much easier to keep track of which row I'm knitting on.
Third, I redid the newly color-coded pattern as a table. So now instead of Row 1 reading P6, K2, P6, K2, pm, p19, K2, P6, K2, P6 (in pink), the initial cable section, the chevron section, and the second cable section have separate cells on the same table row. This makes it very easy to focus on which part of the scarf is being knit at any time. The cell divisions will be marked on the actual scarf with stitch markers, of course.
And finally, within each cell, complex directions have been broken into separate text rows. So the cable instructions now read:
P2, CF4
P2, CF6
P2
... instead of one line of text that has to be puzzled through. The chevrons have been broken down the same way; at one point the rows read:
P5
K1, P1, K1
P3
K1, P1, K1
P5
I *think* all of this will draw the eye more easily than blocks of text. I'll let you know...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-11-24 02:23 am (UTC)