137 Stitches

That is how many stitches I am supposed to have once I have finished Chart B of the Juneberry Triangle Shawl, and I just counted and that is how many I have! Victory is mine. And now I have to take back the words "I will never knit from a chart." As I have been told many times, it really IS easier to read a chart than it is to read stitch-by-stitch instructions. Now I consider myself a chart-knitter and worlds of lace are open to me. And no, this isn't the chart from Juneberry Triangle. I couldn't post that unless I wanted to risk going to prison for copyright violations, and I'm pretty sure that while they might allow yarn in prison, they probably don't allow knitting needles. I think those could be used to shank someone, if shank also means to stab with a needle and not just with a knife. My knowledge of prison argot comes from Law and Order and they haven't specifically covered knitting needles and shanking. This diagram I can post as long as I say it's from Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog, by Kitty Burns Florey. It is an offbeat history of diagramming sentences. And yes, I do own it; and yes, I have read it, cover to cover; and yes, I really enjoyed it. Go ahead and snicker, if you like. The un-diagrammed sentence says, "Whenever a man in the banking profession announced his marriage to a circus pinhead, it was the custom for friends to present him with a bellows and a three-year supply of wax fruit." Just in case you wondered. But back to knitting. I can't show the chart, but I can show the sort-of triangle.

The picture below shows the lifelines or safety lines. I decided early on that I definitely needed them.
In fact, I have learned several things about knitting lace:

Safety lines---use them.

Stitch markers to define repeats---use them!!! If I don't I could be a stitch short for a repeat section and just blithely knit along, unknowingly taking a stitch from the next section. And then from the next, and then from the next, and at the end of the row...%$^&*(

Count stitches, very, very often...especially on a pattern like this one, where the purl rows have pattern in them instead of just being plain old purl rows. (Mean designers)

Really, really pay attention to which direction the pattern needs to be read from. The first time I used a chart, for the Autumn Leaves Fingerless Mitts, the chart was always read from right to left because the gloves were knit on double point needles. This triangle is knit on a long circular needle and so the chart lines are read alternately from right to left, then left to right. It's not fun to take out a row of knitting after I discover that I've just knit an entire row from the wrong direction.

Slip, slip, purl: Whoever thought that stitch up was a sadist.

That might be all I've learned so far.

On to chart C!!!