HA! Take that, Flower Basket Shawl!

If you've completed, or even tried to knit the Flower Basket Shawl, you'll know that it can be a challenge, because if you try to put stitch markers where the pattern shows the pattern repeat as existing, you end up  having to do a decrease across the stitch marker.   Quite a number of other  possible placements also have that same problem, but I found a couple that don't, so I'm putting up my solution in hopes that it will help someone that wanted to make this, but got frustrated over the issue of keeping track of where you are in the pattern.

This is a dumbed down schematic of the repeat on the lower flower basket chart (click on the image below to get the full size image to print out).  The few symbols I left in should be just enough so you can tell where in the pattern I'm indicating, without giving away any copyrighted information.

The green lines are the stitch markers by the garter stitch border and the center stitch.  The red lines are where the original pattern indicates the pattern repeat is.  The blue line is where the stitch markers go to help you keep track of pattern repeats.  If you place the stitch markers after the yo's indicated, the stitch marker will be in the place shown by the blue line on each row (the fact that the marker doesn't stay in the same vertical position was another challenge).

I suggest that you count the stitches in each section both after you complete the section, and as you purl back across the even rows, to make sure that you have everything correct... it is so easy to drop the yarn overs (especially the ones just before stitch markers) or to forget to pass the slipped stitch back over, and if your count is off, you'll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out why things won't work out. 

This should help anyone who has had a hard time following this pattern.  It's just way too hard to keep track of where you're at if you can't mark off the pattern repeats... and it just gets worse as you get farther along and there's more and more stitches to deal with.

Let me know if you run into any problems.

Comments

[mimsie]

PERFECT timing! This is my next project and first shawl! Thanks so much!!

[Judy]

Good idea with the markers! I finished the knitting on my FBS on Sunday afternoon, but I moved the markers every row. Yuck. I did get to the point where I could put the markers in on the purl row, though, and that worked for me. I am SOO glad to have the thing off my needles, though!!