The Knitting Fiend

Doesn’t Colocha look elegant in her mohair shawl? Colocha named her shawl “Barbara” to thank Barbara J. for prodding me to elaborate on how to knit pie wedge shawls by posting at The Knitting Fiend Forum.
 

I’ll be fully documenting this shawl, but I figured I should begin by posting the directions for the edging, since you’ll want to swatch this. Here are the directions for “Modified Loop Edging”, it’s based on “Loop Edging” in Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Knitting.

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Modified Loop Edging:
The edging itself requires 8 stitches. It’s must be attached to a long strip of knitting, which in these directions are 3 stitches knit in garter stitch. When knitting a shawl, you would replace these with the directions for shaping the main part of the shawl.

• Cast On 11 stitches; knit 1 row. (–3 “main” stitches, 8 edging stitches.)
• Row 1: K3, (yo, k2tog, k1) twice, (yo) twice, k1. (– 15 stitches on the needle.)
• Row 2: (K2, p1) 4 times, k3. (The double yarnovers are treated as two stitches. Knit into the first loop then purl into the second one. Notice that you purl into the single yarn overs.)
• Row 3: K3, (yo, k2tog, k1) twice, k6.
• Row 4: Bind off 4 stitches, k3, p1, k2, p1, k3. (– 11 stitches on needle. I bound off by p2tog, slip stitch back on left tip, p2tog.)

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Ok, how did I modify this compared to Walker? Her directions use ’ssk’ to decrease in rows 1 and 3. I found those to be a pain in the neck, so I substituted k2tog which I find faster. This modifies the appearance very slightly. When swatching, try both methods and decide which you prefer.

Since this trim is used as an edging, I use a maker to separate the “main or shawl” stitches from the edging stitches. When you use this to edge a shawl, replace the directions for knitting the edge stitches with the directions for the full shawl. I marked that “main or shawl” stitches in blue to show which stitches you need to replace with your shawl directions.

Now, I suspect some people may be wanting to make Barbara. Here is a tip for swatching to make “Barbara”: Replace the k3 stitches with enough stitches to create a 3″ to 4″ wide garter stitch swatch; knit your swatch until it’s 3″ to 4″ long. Wash and block your swatch gently. Then, measure the gauge from the garter stitch portion. Measure the width of the lace. (These bits of information will be used to figure out how many stitches you need to cast on.

Oh, guess what? I’m actually going to make a full size Barbara! I’ve just bought Mohair in white for this purpose. I haven’t measured the remaining yardage on my mohair skein, so have no clue how much it takes, I’ve ordered a very generous amount. (Hmmm… maybe for the sake of others who might want to knit this, and don’t want to buy way, way too much yarn, I should set up my yarn meter, measure the remaining yardage and make sure the program I’m writing has a yardage estimator? Hmmm…)

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Yarn: Taiga Caress Mohair. This 50% mohair- 50% acrylic blend is very soft lusterous, and, unlike many mohair yarns, strangely easy to rip. I find it easier to knit than many mohair yarns.