Five minutes into it and I already am confused beyond words.

[brokenblossoms]

Me. Swallowtail shawl. Budding lace 1 chart, row 1. HELP.

[G J]

Can you attach or link the pattern? I don't know if I can help, but without the pattern, it's hard to give any direction!

If it helps, I recently finished my first lace shawl and at first it was , but once I figured the pattern, it got MUCH easier! I also wrote out the pattern, row by row. That helped me think it through. I'm not so good with charts, but written directions made it MUCH easier.

[brokenblossoms]

1. How am I supposed to get this many out of seven little stitches?
2. What am I supposed to do for the "no stitch" areas?

[Mariblue]

I'll try to help, but somebody else might be able to help better!
You completely ignore the no stitch areas. They don't even exist.
So you cast on the seven stitches, then: k2, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, and end k2. That means there are now 11 stitches on your needles. So then on row 2 (wrong side row) you'll: k2, p7, k2.

Does that make sense?

[psammeadred]

For row 1: k2, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, k2. You start with 7 stitches and end with 11. Do you see how I got that? Just start at the lower right corner and work from right to left.

For the dark "no stitch" areas - pretend they aren't even there. Those are just space filler. You'll increase to get up to that number of stitches as the pattern goes along.

[REVS]

First time I saw the little dark square for no stitch I was totally confused, too.

But really it's very easy: No stitch = you do nothing.
Whenever there's that dark square, ignore it.
So the first row really only has 7 stitches. However, after that you increase every row so that the number of "no stitches" goes down each row. They just had to leave the extra dark squares in there to make the whole thing fit into a chart.

Just do it exactly what the pattern tells you. You'll be able to do this!

One extra word of advice: count your stitches after each row to make sure you didn't forget to do an increase, and mark your current row (sticky notes work good) so that you don't get lost in the pattern. It'll get easier with practice, really!

[brokenblossoms]

thanks everyone! I am so relieved!