The Knitting Fiend

This is Jenny, a young friend of mine who has cystic fibrosis. She is currently on a waiting list for a double lung transplant required to save her life. Her surgery and special treatment will incur immense costs, many of which are not covered by insurance. To help cover some of these costs, her family has set up a fund through COTA, the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.

As a favor to me, I am asking generous knitters to consider making a donation of $5 or more to Jenny’s fund. (Because of administrative overhead, COTA requests donations less than $5 be given by non-internet methods.)

After you donate, come back and knit this simple yet elegant “Jenny Shawl”. I knit mine using 2 skeins of Taiga 100% Alpaca yarn which sells for $4.25 a skein and fluffs beautifully when you wash and block. The bulk of the knitting is worked in garter stitch. The faux lace trim consists of elongated twisted knit stitches (which are very easy) bordered by two eyelet rows. When you wear it, say a prayer for Jenny!

(more…)

Remember I said I was working on another shawl shape? That was true. To give to my niece Maggie? That was also true. Remember I said it would be another pie-wedge type shawl? I lied.

I didn’t intend to lie. It’s just that I went to 4 yarns stores but I didn’t find quite the right blue-green variegated yarn for the project I envisioned in my head. On Monday, I looked at a 300 meter skein of Taiga Tender and thought: “Yum. She’ll love teal!” Unfortunately, I also thought, “Is 300 m enough yarn?” I figured it was enough for a shawlette that would just cover the shoulders — but just barely.

In principle, I could make a pie-wedge shawl. But there is a problem: with pie wedge shawls is you really, really don’t want to run out of yarn in the middle of the crucial final wedge! If you run out of yarn, you pretty much have to rip the whole thing. That means to be safe, you need to budget about 10% extra yarn. I wanted to make the biggest shawl I could with my 1 skein.

So, I decided to knit one of the classic shawl shapes that lets you knit until you run out of yarn: the double triangle shawl. I still didn’t know if 300 meters would be enough yarn, but on Monday night I said “What the heck!” and cast on.

It’s finished now. (Really!) I’ll model after blocking.

This is the basic method for this shawl which is a good “carry-along”, “mindless”, “knit while watching tv” project:

• Backward loop cast on 1 stitch.
• Row 1: Knit 1. Tighten up cast on.
• Row 2: Kfbf — 3 stitches on needle.
• Row 3: Slip 1, Kfbf, k1 — 5 stitches on needle.
• Row 4: Slip 1, kfb, k1,yo, k2 — 7 stitches on needle.
• Row 5: Slip 1, kfb, k1, k1,yo, k3 — 9 stitches on needle.
• Row 6: Slip 1, kfb, k2, k1,yo, k4 — 11 stitches on needle.
• Repeat in pattern established until the straight edge of the shawl somewhat wider than your shoulders. After that, change the “kfb” into “kfbf”. (This point is noted by the red diagonal lines on the figure above. If you want your shawl to be a perfect triangle without the “kink” or the little tails, don’t ever switch to the kfbf increases.)
• When the shawl is “long enough” or you have only enough yarn to work about two more rows, apply a picot bind off.

Note:

• kfb means knit into front and back of same stitch, it’s a single increase.
• kfbf means knit into front, then back then front of same stitch. This is a double increase– 3 stitches are worked into 1.
• When you count stitches ‘yo’ counts as a stitch.
• As you work this, you’ll notice the stitch written in blue is the center of the shawl. You won’t need stitch markers to keep track of anything because you’ll find the pattern near the center is “…., knit 1 into the yarn over from the previous row, knit into center stitch, yarn over, knit…” You’ll also notice the the rows create the lower edge of the shawl. If you knit this in stripes, you’ll create a chevron effect.

Some specifics for my shawl: I used size 8 circular needles to achieve a gauge of 16 st = 18 rows = 4″. I switched from the kfb increases to the kfbf increases when the shawl measured about 17 inches wide along the top part; it also measured 8 1/2′ along the central line between the yarn overs. The final shawl measures 16″ down the back and 21 1/2″ along the edges. I had about 12″ left over from 1 300 meter skein of Taiga Tender. (Yes, I’ll be writing a calculator so you can imitate this and also know how much yarn you need for the size shawl you want to knit!)

You’ve found Lucia’s calculator to create a pattern for “Sarah”, a simple pie wedge type shawl knit in garter stitch. The calculator lets you imitate my design exactly or if you want to substitute another yarn and knit at another gauge, you can enter your own values. My shawl is knit using 4 skeins of Taiga Caress Mohair which is soft on the skein, and softer after you wash it. (It’s also easier to rip than most mohair yarns.) I love this shawl shape for wearing to the theater or opera. The back just reaches the chair– but I don’t need to sit on the shawl. The fronts are long and cover my legs.

The pattern directions created by the calculator will be relatively brief. If you need a tutorials for knitting the pattern, you’ll find a whole bunch in the category shawls. You can also find a lot of tutorials by clicking the numerical links at the bottom of the Barbara Shawl blog post. (Note: The Barbara Shawl has a deep trim, but is not as symmetric as the Sarah. The reason why is discussed in the pie wedge shawl theory post.) (more…)