Why this shawl ate my life

The cat ate it
It actually took maybe 80 hours, but that was spread over 8 months, and much of that time was spent in disgust and worry, thinking about the mangled edge the cat chewed on when the project was about half done.

Beading detail
As to why a simple bias-knit shawl would take 80 hours, the answer is the ~3100 beads it contains. Adding beads every 5th stitch, every other row slows down the work AMAZINGLY.

Bead breakdown
MAIN BODY=~21 beads per beaded row x 115 beaded rows
EDGING=6 beaded rows x 121 beads

the non-bead rows contain the bias shaping, moving over one stitch every 2-row repeat, a total of about 250 rows (there are some plain rows between the main body and the edging). In other words, the beads are place on the plain row at the spot where a single st has joined together the k2togs.

About halfway through the last half (does that even make sense?) I acquired a bead spinner. Wow, what a difference--although the spinner only works well when fairly full, so it was back to hand-loading the crochet hook towards the end.

I used a very small steel crochet hook to apply the beads. The beads were square hole 6/0 glass beads, don’t know the manufacturer, bought at Moonlight Madness, a bead shop long out of business. Naturally, I ran out but luckily found a match at Wisconsin Craft Mart with TOHO 6/0 glass beads in round hole. The middle line of each edging is the TOHO beads, I don’t think anyone will ever be able to tell except for me. In fact, the beads are a perfect match in color, but, because they are silvered inside, the round holes do catch the light somewhat differently than the square holes. Despite the fact that I like the way the light refracts off the silvered square hole embedded in the glass, the TOHO round-hole beads have a MUCH bigger hole, so much easier to get onto the little steel hook, and I would seek them out for the next project.

Dates

This shawl happened in two chunks: first in March 2015, I got about half way into the knitting. Then the cat came and chewed on the edge which discouraged me totally, leading to utter abondonment until October.

In October, I finished the remaining knitting. In early November, I removed, re-knit and re-beaded the damaged edging (a nightmare in mohair). The trick was to work the replacement edging as if working from a provisional cast on. With great good luck, the cat-damage stopped exactly one row short of the beginning of the first YO row.

What’s “Magical” about it?

Magic stretchiness
A very simple pattern created a project both attactive and versatile: IMHO, the match of many a more complicated lace.

The biased fabric has properties of stretch which even the loosest straight knitting does not have.

The shawl is rectangular, yet when it is folded in half widthwise so that the folded edge worn again the neck (there is a photo of this) there is no edge to constrain the stretch of the fabric. With no fabric edge anywhere nearby, it magically stretches more than fabric worked with ANY sort of edging, no matter how stretchy that cast-on or bound- off or knitted edge is reputed to be.

In other words, because the folded edge is the edge against the neck, the edge of the GARMENT is not the edge of the FABRIC. This post explains more:

http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-bands-and-cu...

When you couple the stretch inherent in a folded edge with the inherent stretchiness of bias fabric, you get a magic amount of stretch. You can see the amount of stretch in the photo where the scarf is held at the top.

Magic lace pattern
You can see clear through the garment due to the openwork. The resulting interference pattern is serendipity itself: never the same twice, always shifting, this is something you could not knit directly, but must achieve in the way the shawl is worn. Like moire, which also achieves its beauty from an interference pattern, this very simple pattern is the equal in visual interest to the most complex lace, as a moire fabric is the equal in visual interest to the most complex jaquard-woven fabric.

Magic versatility
Neck scarf, blanket and all steps in between: head scarf, coat-scarf, lap-robe… Plus, being mohair, it compresses amazingly.

For traveling, a dream. Want to be--

--warmer? finished size is 30x60, it’s a blanket
--cooler? Cram it into your bag--compresses very small
--elegant? Arrange on shoulders lots of different ways
--rough and ready? Sling it around your neck=a neck scarf.

Yes, it IS delicate--with all the YO’s, this is not a gift for a careless person. And keep it the heck away from velcro (::shudders::) Make it for yourself and find a little silk drawstring bag to carry it around in.

Aaaand…little clicks the beads make + the heft they add to the fabric = pure pleasure.