March 21, 2016: Day 1 - Triangle Shawl

Since I had never knit a shawl before, I had never tried the garter cast on, but Frenchie perfectly explained it in a video. The markers were a bit cumbersome at the beginning (I was using plastic ones), but once I was familiar with the increases I was confident enough to remove them and knit happily ever after… I will use scrap yarn markers tomorrow, I think they will bother my knitting less… ;)

This was a perfect lesson and I’m so happy with it (I think triangular will be my favourite shape for shawl construction)… I can’t wait to knit my first real shawl and incorporate colour work and stitch patterning (maybe even some lace!)… I’m really hoping binding off is easier than it seems as well!

Also - blocking magic! I should’ve taken a “before” picture…

March 22, 2016: Day 2 - Crescent Shawl

I was not so thrilled with this mini-shawl. I didn’t enjoy knitting is as much as the triangle-shaped. I had an issue with the YOs in the WS - I had to knit one of them (the first one if I recall correctly) through the back loop in the RS, so that the “holes” would look the same. If not, I would have twisted stitches on one side of the increases. I had never done YOs in the transitions from K to P or P to K so I might be doing them completely wrong and that’s what it is…

I still prefer the triangle shape, but I can imagine a full-size garment being too pointy and I understand the beauty in the crescent shape!

I’m learning so much… That’s what I’m most happy about!

March 23, 2016: Day 3 - Asymmetrical Triangular Shawl

I really liked this shape! It’s not so pointy in the bottom as the triangular shape, but for some reason it seemed to take forever to grow! Probably because it’s only increased two stitches (or one?) every two rows… But then again the rows seem very long from the beginning! However, I really like the finished shape. I did the increases with YOs but I think I would like it more with KFB…

March 24, 2016: Day 4 - Half-Pi

Oh my! If this wasn’t a challenge… Knitting it was the easy part, so I went all in and added a colour change and a lace pattern. And when I finished I had a mini-shawl the shape of… a pizza slice! I believed in the wonders and miracles of blocking and proceeded to pin the hell out of my mini-shawl… But it was just looking like a hand-fan (an “abanico” in Spanish, you know?). What a drama. But then, the ever so helpful Frenchie (@arohaknits) gave us lots of suggestions and advice, but it was late at night and my head couldn’t get it quite right… Until I saw some very visual tip: to insert a knitting needle on the top edge to make it straight and gather the stitches. So this shape, unlike the others, needed the top edge to be blocked ever so softly and the bottom edge… very aggressively.

Note to self: if you ever knit this shape again, make the increasing rows closer to each other, and add an extra YO at the begining. And never use this shape for cotton yarn. You want the yarn to be stretchy.

Pattern worked better for me when (excluding the K3 garter edges):

• With 3 body stitches on the needle, directly (K1, YO) between markers. 6 sts on needle. Work a resting row.
• Work in stockinette for 2 rows.
• Work an increase row of (K1, YO) between markers. 12 sts on needle. Work a resting row.
• Work in stockinette for 4 rows.
• Work an increase row of (K1, YO) between markers. 24 sts on needle. Work a resting row.
• Work in stockinette (or desired stitch pattern) for 8 rows.
• Work an increase row of (K1, YO) between markers. 48 sts on needle. Work a resting row.
• Work in stockinette (or desired stitch pattern) for 16 rows.

March 25, 2016: Day 5 - Square Shawl

Round 1 should be (PM, K1, PM, YO, K1, YO) x4. But I preferred to only have one marker that indicated the beginning of the row and do the math instead:

Round 1: (K1, YO) x8
Round 2 (and all the other even numbered rows): Knit all stitches
Round 3: (K1, YO, K3, YO) x4
Round 5: (K1, YO, K5, YO) x4
Round 7: (K1, YO, K7, YO) x4

And so on…