Knitting: Shetland Lace Abbreviations

Tonight I learned that the two books I checked out from the Lacemakers of Puget Sound guild library have unique ways of speaking to knitting abbreviations. Books: The Art of Shetland Lace by Sarah Don & Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller.

Sarah Don’s book, The Art of Shetland Lace, gave only written instructions for the 30+ stitch samples and 8 patterns.  I was getting a bit concerned when I could not locate the abbreviations page (located on page 23) as I was not familiar with some of the knitting terms.

A few of the abbreviations:

O = wool over

2P = pass two slip stitches over

PT = purl two together

T = knit two together

T3 = knit three together

T4 = knit four together

U = make one stitch by picking up loop between stitches

Now, at one time or another, we have all done these stitches.  Once you read the descriptions, they totally make sense.

Maybe I need to look into what may be the universal knitting symbols chart.  You know, the one where we can read any pattern in any language as long as there is a chart.  Does one exist?  Ah, more research.

Charting out a written pattern is quite, well, fun.  At least for me.  I glean more off of charting it out than just reading it.  I guess something just connects and that good old lightbulb above the head gets brighter.

Tonight, I charted out the Cat’s Paw.  Quite simple though I used my own charting symbols.

I think I need to knit up samples of the lace patterns for my notebook.  It will give a good reference and help me check my handwritten charts.  Maybe I should be writing in pencil, silly me.

Give it a try: If you are interested in making a lovely lace scarf using the Cat’s Paw lace pattern, check out the Cat’s Paw Scarf by Elizabeth Lovick, a free PDF available on the web.

Happy lace knitting to you.