The Knitting Fiend

Hi everyone. Yes. I disappeared for a while. I was tired of knitting. But, I’m back.

But this time, I’ve decided that I want to continue bringing lessons to everyone but . . . well… I also want to make a little money. So, over the past few weeks, I’ve been organizing a new site that will provide some free content and some “by subscription” content. I’ll admit I’m still working the bugs out on the technology end, but I’ve decided I have enough there to host an introductory design lesson.

The design lesson will be “how to design an ascot scarf”.

I’m wearing one in the photo shown.

The first few lessons will be free, with later, more computationally intensive lessons by subscription. (The final lessons will include a calculator so you can create your own scarf pattern.) The first very simple lesson is here.

By the way, if you try the chat at that site, and I’m around, I’ll say “hi”. But… of course.. if I’m not there, I won’t. Sorry.

KitKat kindly agreed to model the very easy to knit Maggie Shawl Design so knitters can see its length and width. As you can see, it’s a sort of shawlette with shapely looking tips. It happens to measure roughly 16 1/2″ long and 43 inches wide. I knit mine using 1 skein of Taiga Tender (goat down and wool.)

This post has a calculator to create a customized pattern for this shawl shape. If you enter the width you want and the gauge you achieve, this program will provide specific directions and estimate yardage requirements that for you.¹

Easy construction: This is a modified double triangle shawl; the knitter starts by casting on 1 stitch. After that, she increases twice each row: once at the beginning and once near the center. After knitting “a while”, the knitter begins to increase 2 stitches at the beginning; this causes the shawl to have long “tails” which curl and appear to require sophisticated shaping.

If you make a small shawl, the extra width helps the shawl stay on. If you make a large shawl, you may be able to tie this around your waist in the manner of faroese shawls.

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I'm doing some blog organization: This is an up to date list of all most of my knitting blog articles that include any sort of calculating "thing". If you can't find the link you want on this page, here is a link to knitting calculators at the pre-blog site. Enjoy!
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