just another raveller

Melanie Berg's new pattern Drachenfels is stylish and well written. And it has me fairly snookered.  It's Sunday afternoon and I have just finished re-doing the same 6 rows that I knit on Saturday morning - for the umpteenth time. It's like a brain test and I'm not passing.  I think that it's because of the counting. I'm the person who knits without looking. I must slow down.  The pattern is entirely garter stitch and is knit on the bias, increasing and decreasing at the beginning and/or the end of certain rows. I keep knitting past the place where I'm supposed to decrease.  I hope to spend less time in the frog pond and finish this week.  Almost every row you see here has been knit over at least one extra time. It will be lovely to wear it. 

I wasn't thinking straight when I said half circle. This is a crescent shaped shawlette. And now I don't like the name Berry Swirl any more either. But don't you just love that moment when you unwrap the lace from its towel and stretch it out? Always so magical. . . It's about the width I wanted- 60 inches. Yum. I'll try and get some shots of it in action tomorrow after it dries.

I keep seeing patterns for half moon shaped shawls. Typically, they have a lace edging and a garter stitch half moon centre, often shaped by short rows. Arroyo, and Crescent Hearts Shawlette are two free patterns that come to mind. Not sure how to insert links using this Blogger app, but you can look them up on Ravelry. Why not pick a favorite lace stitch for the edge, knit a swatch with the yarn of your choice in order to calculate how many stitches to cast on and GO!? I am doing just that. I am using a couple of yarns from Periwinkle Sheep here. After switching, I decided to cast on 325 stitches. I'm hoping my shawl will be about 60 inches wide.  I am knitting 3 pattern repeats of a stitch from Sharon Miller's book, Heirloom Knitting. It's called Madeira Cascade and it was the centre stitch in my Seven Seas shawl that I entered in the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival contest last year. I'm just finishing up the lace part and I'm about to start the garter short rows. I ...

I'll try to get a better shot soon, but this will have to do for now. It was vain of me to take my glasses off, but I was following the photographers instructions. 

Here it is, almost dry! Tomorrow morning I'll sew in the ends and wear it to the Artisan Market at the Knitting Circle, 11-4. In the end I did 13 reacts of the chevron pattern after the waistband. And I never used the widest pattern repeat. I was afraid that I'd end up with too much fabric hanging around my hips. Instead, I worked in some extra of the narrowest repeats right after the waistband. I think it will bel just right. In any case, there are many options for shaping and sizing in this pattern. There are almost as many suggestions as there are Ravelry projects for this pattern. 

The Hitofude has a set combination of lace pattern repeats after the waistband that create a widening "skirt."  Ravellers report increasing the length using various combinations of these repeats. At this point I have completed 8: 5 chevrons of pattern A and 3 of pattern B. This is already 2 more than the pattern calls for. I'm aiming at a length of 18 inches from the underarm. I think that if I just follow the pattern as it's written from now on, I'll end up with 14 altogether. That should do it. In any case, it's easy enough to add an extra repeat at the bottom if I feel I need it. Thank you, Mary Lou for the encouragement. You know, now that I can see the end, I must say this pattern would be a good one for a rising intermediate lace knitter. It's not hard at all, the instructions are well written, and there is no sewing involved. I highly recommend it.