The Princess Diaries

A Schematic

Hi K.,

Yesterday I thought it might be a good idea to post a schematic of the Princess, so anyone reading has an idea of how this thing is constructed. Since there isn’t a diagram in the instructions themselves, it might be useful for us, as well.

The project starts with the peaked Edging, which is cast on (or not) at A, and is worked as a long strip to A'. Then the Edging stitches are put on a holder of some kind until needed. Stitches to work the Border are knitted up along the Edging’s straight edge, and the Border is worked as indicated by the arrows, in a rectangular shape. The thick lines at the top of the Border, labeled B, represent a unique lace pattern which serves as a strong visual break, and also reduces the stitch count --  helping to shape the Border into the curved shape.

The triangular Centre is started at its lowest point, labeled C, and works up, increasing in size as it goes. It is also attached to the Border as it is worked. Then the Edging stitches are returned to the needle at A', and the Edging works across the top of the shawl. Finally, the Edging stitches are grafted to their cast-on stitches at A.

It should be noted that I created this diagram with the drawing tools in MSWord. My drawing skills are not wonderful; some of the geometry is not completely correct. However, it represents what we are making fairly well.

I see you're up to 20 repeats. I've done a bit of thinking about the knit-up ratio for the border, and after doing the math, sent the numbers off to Mar. She used to edit patterns, so I figure she's a good person to check the accuracy of the numbers. I haven't heard back from her as she's closing a job contract but I hope she'll get to it over the weekend.

Don't worry, we both have lots of edging repeats to knit yet!

Fun with numbers and the "S" word

Dear Ted,

As you know, I have developed an alarming tendency towards insomnia, the sort where, exhausted as I am, I am unable to fall asleep.  Once asleep, I'm fine.  It's the time between ten at night and three in the morning that's killing me.

I'm not a good insomniac.  Oh, yes, there is such a thing -- a good insomniac is one who, upon realizing that he/she is not going to get to sleep anytime soon, gets up and does stuff.  Reads.  Cleans. Knits.

No, I am, perhaps not surprisingly, a bad insomniac.  I'm the kind of insomniac who is so very, very exhausted that all I can do is lie in bed and listen to my mind race -- my French doctor claimed I had a bicycle in my head, and I swear he's right, and every single night I'm doing a stage in the Tour de France.

So there I was, last night, trying to get zen with the cd of monks chanting, and instead, all that was happening was that numbers were running through my head.

Princess numbers.

For example -- let's take the Foundation Edging.

The Foundation edging consists of 20 rows, worked over 85 repeats (to get 85 points).  That works out to a total of 1700 rows.    One Thousand, Seven Hundred.  Rows.

I can, at this point, work ONE repeat in two hours.  So, with 1700 rows at 2 hours per twenty rows (= one repeat), that's what, 85 repeats times 2 hours = 170 hours.

One hundred and seventy hours.  That's 7 whole days plus two hours.  Now, if I were the good sort of insomniac, I could probably get the edging done in a couple of weeks.  But I'm not the good sort of insomniac, so it will likely take me close to 200 days (!) knitting one to two hours a day, to get the edging done.

I'm seriously hoping that I can get a rhythm going and improve my average time per point, because at that rate, I won't be getting the shawl done by my hypothetical deadline (mid-February 2007). 

When you knit lace, do you ever get people asking you how much it would cost for you to knit one for them?  I did, when I worked the Shetland Christening Shawl.  So I decided that maybe I should be prepared for that.

I decided to use the formula that has you add the cost of materials plus one cent for every stitch in the garment/item being knitted.  For the moment, I'm going to set aside the cost of the materials.

I figured out last night that there are approximately 640 sts in one repeat of the foundation edging.  So, for 85 repeats, that makes 640 times 85 equals 54,400 sts.

Fifty-four THOUSAND, four hundred.

Multiply that by one cent, and you get $544.00.  For just the Foundation Edging.

I didn't calculate the number of stitches in the whole shawl.

Yet.

I'm saving that for tonight.

k

(who has been assiduously avoiding the fact that you keep casually dropping the word "swatch" into posts and emails.  Don't worry, I'll have something to say about that soon enough...)