How to read a chart 101

Did you know you follow charts from right to left in knitting? I didn't. Think back to my lacy shrug, the one I knitted and unknitted several times before throwing down the needles and giving in. I was reading the chart wrong the whole time. No wonder it never looked right.

I'm a journalist by trade, which means I read and write a lot (obviously, really), so everything I do is left to right. It's how I think - I'm right-brained so gravitate left. But knitting doesn't work that way. It took a lot for me to work this out, and I'm still not entirely sure I'm there, but knitting goes right to left. It only seems like it goes the other way because I'm right-handed, but think about it: when knitting a right-side row you're actually going from the right-hand side of the piece to the left (ignore that tricksy fact that the knitting goes from your left-hand needle to the right one, and look at the actual fabric).

But it gets even more confusing because now swap to the wrong side: you're still going left needle to right, and it still appears that the fabric is building right to left. But that's because you're looking at the back! Hold the piece up and look at the front - the fabric is growing left to right.

And this is how we read charts. Obviously. All right-side rows (odd numbers in my experience, but I don't know if that's always the case) should be read from right to left. Wrong-side rows are read left to right. But these often don't have a pattern, in which case they don't matter.

In fact the chart should be a visual representation of what your knitting will look like. If \ is a left-leaning increase and O a yarn over, then your knitting should have a nice left increase and a nice hole wherever those symbols appear in the chart. Simple, see?

Well, it is when you know how.

But where does this leave me and my lacy shrug? Shamefully, it leaves my shrug at the bottom of my knitting bag and me doing very nicely thank you with a cabled tunic. I need to undo the rest of the lace rows of the shrug before I can apply my new knowledge, and quite frankly I can't face it at the moment. But the nights are getting lighter and the weather warmer and soon I'll be able to sit in the garden and knit. And that's when I'll break out the shrug. Honest.

The jumper on my back

It's done! All sewn up and I'm wearing right now. Unfortunately I can't post pictures because we moved recently and first I could't find the lead that connects the camera to the computer and then when I did the camera's battery died and I can't find the charger. It's around somewhere, though, and when it turns up there will be photos.

I'm pretty darn pleased with this jumper. It fits, it's warm, the colours are lovely and not usually something I would buy. I think it looks good. I made a couple of snafus - I somehow got the rib pattern in the wrong order for about four inches on one row only and some of the sewing up isn't so great. But all in all, it works. And I'm especially impressed that I've managed to make something this good as my first effort.

What would I do differently next time? Well, I think I'd make it in a smaller size; this one fits fine and I can get a tee-shirt on underneath, but something a bit more fitted would also be nice. I'd make the neckline a tad higher too. I think it'd be nice if the two colours were made more of. I think I'd like one that was one shade on all the ribbing and then another on the stocking stitch. Maybe a dark blue on the ribbing topped with a paler blue.