The Knitting Fiend

Recently, PJ wrote me saying they wanted to knit a Lily Chin's Reversible Rib Shawl which is knit at 8 st/inch, but she wanted to substitute yarns that would knit up at a different gauge. She'd visited my page describing how to figure out how to recalculate a rectangle when the stitch pattern was simple, but still didn't know what to do for a shawls whose beauty comes from it's complex stitch pattern.

I'm going to explain what data you need to extract from a pattern for a rectangular shawl, and provide a calculator. Once you understand this, you can use the calculator to recalculate any number of shawls, scarves or rectangular objects, provided they have a known pattern repeat. You can even use it to design a narrower or deeper shawl etc.

Let's begin.

First, Lily's shawl is basically a very long wide rectangle knit in a fancy stitch pattern. In a sense, it is a very wide scarf.

Second, Lily's pattern directions provide a chart which is 48 stitches wide. That number is important.

Third, we need to figure out how the chart fits into the pattern. So, let's examine the first few text directions.

Cast on 176 stitches.
row 1 RS k4 (both sides have garter sts all around the length of the shawl) place marker- work 1 to 48 sts of the chart (k2P2) 3 times then sts 1 to 24 once more pm k4.

• Begin with 4 border stitches.
• Repeat a 48 stitch wide chart 3 times.
• Work a small portion of the chart -- 24 stitches. ( Notice this is a 1/2 repeat.)
• End with 4 border stitches.
• Note: You were instructed to cast on 176 stitches = 4 + 48 * 3 + 24 +4 = 176.

You knit until the piece is 70" long. The original shawl will be 22" inches wide. (This is equal to 176 st. / 8 st/in. )

Finally, this information will be useful when estimating the yardage:

• The stitch gauge is 8 st/inch.
• The original shawl required 2300 yds of yarn.

Ok, so now you want to use a yarn that knits up at a different gauge. You obviously don't want to cast on the same number of stitches, that would end up too wide or too narrow. What should you do?

First, since you are substituting yarn, you will need to swatch with a variety of needle sizes until you create a fabric you like. This isn't really something that can be calculated because you may be substituting entirely different types of fibers. In any case, whether or not a fabric feels nice is a matter of personal preference. So, just experiment.

Once you have a swatch you like and you've figured out your needle sizes, you can enter the important numbers below. Then, the row 1 directions will be magically rewritten for you. After row 1, you are on your own!

When filling out the form, you only need to change the values that are different for your shawl/ scarf or what not.

To let you not only recalculate Lily's shawl, but possibly scale up someone else's shawl, I've made the form flexible. So, for Lily's shawl, leave the 4 border stitches, the 48 stitches in the chart repeat and the 24 partial stitches, but change the stitch gauge. If you want to substitute different fancy stitch pattern from a different shawl pattern, you can change the stitch repeat etc.

Oh, one more thing. . .

Advanced knitters who examine Lily's chart specifically will notice her stitch pattern works on the "half drop" principle. This means you can work 1/2 repeat, 1 repeat, 1 1/2 repeats etc. If you understand this, you can modify the way you use the calculator to make the shawl width come out even closer to the width you like. How?

Run it as explained. Write down the width you get. Run it again but this time, set the number of stitches in the second half repeat to zero. Write down that width. Decide which is closer to the width you like, and follow those instructions.