Knitting with charts

[redhedlvr2]

I found this really interesting cardigan in a recent magazine (no details, sorry, cause it's at home and I'm at work).  I really REALLY want to make it but they would have me use charts.  Like five of them.  I thought, ok, I'm reasonably intelligent, I can do this.  But just to be sure before I cast on even a dry run kind of thing, I added all the stitches from all the charts called for in the directions, and came up with ten extra stitches from what the cast on indicated.  Also, in BIG BOLD LETTERS, they told me if I'm making a large size to start the charts right away.  Well, what else would I be doing, and why the heck did they go through the trouble of printing out stitch by stitch directions if they gave me charts to begin with?  I'm so confused I don't even know how to write it all out.  And I'll be damned if some little chart is gonna defeat me!  Its also rather alarming because it seems to be the current trend.  Just about every pattern has a chart of some type.  I HATE CHARTS!

Sorry, rant over.

If anybody has any words of wisdom concerning knitting with charts, I'd love to hear from you.

Comments

[henrycat.livejournal.com]

Personally I love charts. I am a visual person and tend to get lost reading long lines of instructions. With charts I can see what the design is supposed to look like and I tend to make fewer mistakes with complicated patterns.

But they're not for everyone. And I think the first few times you use them it's easy to get confused. When I work with multiple charts I tend to make a spreadsheet that shows where I am supposed to be on each chart for any given row. Especially useful when the charts have different numbers of rows.

With the different sizes sometimes you don't start right into the charts. You knit several stitches first and then start a chart.

I'd be curious to know what pattern and magazine you're working with. I might be able to help.

The good thing is that I haven't seen a pattern yet that doesn't have BOTH charts and written instructions. Then you can ignore one or the other. :)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

This is what I want to make

http://www.stitchesmarket.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=7641

You'd think I'd start with something easy as far as charts go. Specifically it states,

"Work chart a for 24 rows. BEG CHARTS B AND C (AND FOR SIZES L AND 1X ONLY, CHART D): ROW 1"

Then it goes on to give stitch by stitch detail as to what I should be doing. For the most part it follows the charts, but no matter how I count, I always come up with too many stitches. I'd scan and e-mail if you trust me.

[henrycat.livejournal.com]

I've got this issue - I'll take a look at it. It's a sweater I thought I might try sometime - I like the diagonal lines.

[perclexed.livejournal.com]

I kind of suck at reading charts, but like henrycat, sometimes I get lost in the text instructions and more often than not knit the wrong wro instruction. I'm hoping to start out with charts on some simple projects this summer. The Kauni hat that I knit a little while ago was a chart, and I totally blew that one, and it's all just freakin' rectangles. I'll have to have a "do over" on that, I think.

In short, find a way to make sure you know which row of the chart you're on. Some people use that long highlighter tape stuff these days, which sounds intriguing!

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

I want to make this:

http://www.stitchesmarket.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=7641

Yeah right. But I really don't have any clue as to when I should start working the large/1x size charts. See my return comment to Henrycat. As charts seem to be the wave of the future, I really should learn to work with them. Color charts I'm ok with, but these multi chart things are just blowing my mind and not in a good wya.

[perclexed.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely sweater, and thank you for calling it to my attention.

If you have the mag, did you check their website for errata? If that fails, do they list contact information where you can write and ask either the designer or the folks at the mag?

Regardless, I hope you do make it and post a pic, because that's awesome! I must get the mag to get the pattern. Woo.

Good luck!

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Well, as with many projects, it's something I would like to make, but probably won't. Especially if I can't figure out the goofy charts. I should probably just cast one and let the stitches fall where they may, using the actual pattern as a guide. No one would ever know. Heh! Which is usually how I knit/sew for real anyway.

[henrycat.livejournal.com]

I looked at the directions and counted up the stitches in the first 2 rows, and they do come out correctly for both the L and XL sizes. It's possible you read the wrong number where they give the values for all 4 sizes. Maybe try writing it out for the size you want.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

*sob*

I spent 45 minutes with my calculator and kept coming out with the same answer over and over. In one way that's good, proving that I can add consistantly. But the bottom line is the answer isn't correct. I'm obviously getting something very wrong. This is becoming a bit of a knitting obsession right now. The thought that I can't figure out these goofy charts is making me insane.

Thank's for your suggestion. I see spreadsheets in my future.