I love my first Daybreak so much that I decided to do a second one. I stuck with three skeins of sock yarn, in order to make it generously sized, in complementary shades of blue that seemed to blend into each other nicely.

Having now knit two of these lovely shawls in three skeins of sock yarn, I can say that I like the shape and the edging of the first one better. Given the yarn I had, I like how I did the color distribution on this version and the end garter border on this version better. Now I have my ideal mods figured out, but I’m not sure I’ll knit a third anytime soon!

Here are the mods I’d recommend should I ever knit this a third time:

• Knit 2 st stockinette edging instead of 2 st garter
• Knit yo at each edge instead of M1R & M1L on both RS and WS (these two mods make an edge that looks a bit like i-cord; a nice finish)
• Increase beginning solid section (two extra 4-row repeats, i.e. 193 stitches on the needles instead of 169; first row of the striped section has 30 st instead of 26 to set up the markers.)
• Slip Color B so one color make the rays all the way through
• If the colorways blend enough, knit A & B together for a while until replacing A with C and knitting C & B together until the border
• If the colorways should be broken up, alternate three colorways for striped section thusly (Color B, solid row; Color C, slipping Color B to make the rays; Color B, solid row; Color A, slipping Color B to make the rays; repeat)
• Slow down increases about 2/3s of the way through (on WS: YO, p2tog at right edge increase and p2tog, YO at left edge; on RS, increase only at edge and center st)
• Final border in straight garter st, perhaps with one needle size smaller

Shawl #6 of 10 shawls in 2010

4/19/2011: And done! I reknit the last few stripes and the border, skipping the increases at each edge on each wrong side row. On the last row of the stockinette portion, I decreased 10% (knit 8, k2tog) and then knit the final border in garter stitch, with RS yo increases and M1 increases along the central stem every other RS row. Pretty much perfect - can’t wait to see how it looks after blocking.

3/19/2011:
Ripped the garter edging and the final few stripes of color, to reknit with more even increases along the edges.

10/13/2010:
I’m finally finished and beyond ecstatic to be done! I used almost exactly 1030 yards of yarn for a nice big StashWin and am very pleased. I like the way I striped the three colors and used color B for consistency in the “rays” of the pattern. I like the garter edging, although it’s not lying as flat as I would like, and I hope blocking fixes that up.

However, I don’t like the shape of this shawl as much as my first. I think the rolled edging I used on my first (especially since I was alternating three colors), worked better. I missed several WS yarnovers on this shawl, which meant that I started slowing down the tail increases too early, and trying to stick a couple extra increases at the end did not work - I just have little flippers at the end of each tail now. Someday I might rip back to where I was on 10/3/2010 (about 3 rows) and reknit them to get rid of the flippers. Right now, though, I am all about blocking and moving on to other projects for a while.

10/6/2010: Finished the stripes - 26.5 sets of four rows in two colors each. I’ve added increases on each edge back in to try to get longer tails. Finally moving into the garter edging!

10/3/2010: Didn’t make it by Sept 30. I have 24 1/2 sets of stripes finished, and still have eight rows of the striping to do before moving into the final solid edging portion. I held the project up against my other Daybreak, and find that this new one does not have the same really long tails/arms that I loved so much about the first one. They are long, just not as long. I shouldn’t have slowed the decreases at each edge down as much as I did. However, I cannot rip back again - I may never finish if I do.

9/16/2010: Have completed 14 stripes. I would not wish stranding with three colors on anyone. I really want to finish this by Sept 30 for Stashdown victory, but I do have a few other deadline pieces too.

8/3/2010: I did it, I ripped all the way back to where I started the stripes. It took about 3 weeks to get the courage up, but I knew I would like the shawl better this way, so I did it. I am knitting the stripes thusly:

• Color B, solid row
• Color C, slipping Color B to make the rays
• Color B, solid row
• Color A, slipping Color B to make the rays
• repeat

This will blend the aqua tones of color A and the purple tones of color C throughout the body of the shawl, with the semi-solid blue of color B providing consistency.

7/15/2010: I added the third color, and I’m not sure I like it. It’s such a noticeable change from the aqua colors of color A. I’m considering ripping back to the start of the stripes and re-doing all the stripes with three colors (A, B, C, B, etc.) with color B used for the rays. But that would be a solid month of knitting that I would rip (sob!) and I’m not sure I can do that yet.

7/11/2010: Exactly halfway through the yarn now! I’ve just finished 18 stripes of the first two colors and am adding in the third.

5/22/2010: Cast on! Here are the mods I have planned, based on what I liked, or wanted to change, about my last Daybreak:

• Knit 3 st garter edging instead of 2
• Knit yo at each edge instead of M1R & M1L
• Make starting solid section a little larger than pattern
• Slow down increases about 2/3s of the way through (no increases on WS, fewer in the center too)
• Final border will be in straight garter st