Leberblümchen

This is all very interesting. What you do to make Leberblümchen oval is, knit back and forth on one end, following the chart, until you have decreased down to one stitch.

If you have Kunststricken: Große und kleine Decken, Leberblümchen is on page 5 of the booklet, charts 25 A B & C.

The first part of Chart A (and all of Chart C) is pretty straightforward.

The second part of Chart A is tricky. You knit the section between the dark lines twice, then the section following the dark lines twice. Then you do that again.

This gives you eight petals that are not quite the same, arranged 1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2 around the center. When you knit Chart B (I've just finished one repeat of B in the first photo), you use the "1" petal stitches at each end and knit back and forth, leaving the "2" stitches on a holder (or in my case, waiting around on a dpn).

Okay, actually I see from the photo that I was knitting in the spaces between the petals. But anyway!

After you've done this down-to-one-stitch thing twice, in order to knit along the sides, you make a yarnover and pick up the back of a slipped stitch. What a coincidence - I just picked up all those slipped stitches on the latest spa cloth.

And then it looks like this:

Still Life with Double Pointed Knitting Needles

I might go back and knit another of these with white or at least pale-colored thread, because I find it's true what the lacemakers say, "The color wears the lace." (I love that phrase, and I'm so stealing it.)

Meanwhile, I'm learning a lot about this pattern. I'm about halfway through the border (chart C) rows.

Here's a sure sign of spring, despite the complete lack of green anywhere: the dredge is out in the channel today.