KNITTING UP DULWICH ROAD

I’m delighted with how this has worked out as a nod to the Lido window grille’s repeating iron stucture, its curling form and utilitarian transparency. Obviously, it’s not at all realistic. I could have done that, say by placing 3 large white curls on a black background using intarsia or stranded knitting, but I have a lot of realism planned for other squares and wanted this one to be about structure. For reference, here again is the grille itself.

This is the first time I have adapted a lace/travelling stitch pattern and I’m feeling rather pleased with myself. I enjoyed the process of working it out over the tests (see Test 1 and Test 2), and then the pleasure of no longer needing the written pattern because I had learned and understood the structure.

In the end I used neither of the yarns mentioned at the end of Test 2. The white was way too white and the pale grey not white enough. I don’t think they would have been strong enough, either. The stitch pattern for the open-work net in the central column requires a pretty hard tug just after the travelling snake in Rows 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, so a cotton yarn is essential.

So I went back to the very pale grey Rico Essentials that I tried and rejected for the mortar in the Brockwell Lido Wall (see BLW Test 1). The colour is bang on and it has a lovely strength and feel. The strands tend to separate, so I had to keep my eye on that, but it didn’t impact badly on the finished work.

I will never, never again make a bobble using a crochet hook. They look ok here, but my hands and fingers were all over the place. How do I hold both knitting needles and the crochet hook and the yarn with just two hands? And if I slide the right needle into the knitting for safe keeping, how do I get it out without dropping the blooming bobble off the crochet hook? Argh!

I dreaded each of the rows that required 6 bobbles. But they are done, and as I want to repeat this square with the publshed pattern in the centre and my new openwork at the sides, I will be breaking that ‘never, never‘ promise to myself pretty soon. (Never, never after that, though.)

PATTERN

The pdf has all the information needed to knit this pattern.