Leftover Gwendolyn
Finished
July 26, 2023
July 28, 2023

Leftover Gwendolyn

Project info
Gwendolyn Cowl by Angeline Webb
Knitting
Neck / TorsoCowl
Thea
Needles & yarn
US 8 - 5.0 mm
18 stitches = 4 inches
in Stocking stitch
Abbey Road Kung Fu Cotton
2 skeins = 306.2 yards (280.0 meters), 200 grams
Pink
Notes

Another cowl from the excess yarn from Thea’s pink cardigan. We both loved this pattern when we saw it. I am predicting that the cowl will be a bit bigger than the pattern b/c the yarn is slightly heavier. I am deliberately knitting tightly on 5mm needles in order to get a garment that is not wildly too big but a fabric that is not too stiff and unpleasant. We will see how it goes…

Performing the elongated, crossed stitches is “interesting” - the linked video was very helpful, though. I am finding that I have to be really careful and sort the stitches out properly when coming back to knit across the top of them b/c it is extremely easy for all of the long strands to become mixed into the incorrect order. Once you get the hang of it and you know what to look out for it really isn’t difficult, though.
I found that gently tugging the work downwards made it easier to see the base of each stitch and sort out where each strand belonged. I actually ended up working row seven in two lots as follows:

  • work to the yos
  • Unravel the yos and slip the first eight elongated stitches as per the pattern
  • Slip those eight stitches back to the left hand needle and work them as per the pattern
  • Then move on to unravel the yos and slip the last eight stitches
  • Slip the last eight sts back to the left needle and work them as per the pattern This gives exactly the same result as the pattern but avoids having all 16 elongated stitches unworked on the needle at once, meaning it is a little bit easier to avoid a big tangle of long strands. When crossing the stitches, once the elongated sts were moved back to the left needle, I found it helped to grab the four that were going over the top and insert the thumb of my left hand under them (I knit with the yarn held in my right hand). I kept my thumb underneath those sts whilst they were moved and whilst they were knitted, thereby making it more clear which strand I was supposed to work and avoiding picking up strands from the sts underneath. I actually found that keeping a decent tension whilst knitting into those elongated strands was more difficult than creating them in the first place.

I would recommend not binding off the sts at the end of the elongated st panel and just putting the live sts on hold so that they can be grafted to the sts at the end of the body rather than seamed. I don’t think a seam is needed there structurally.

Bugger!!! My cat just stood on my iPad and I lost a heap of notes!!!

Picking up sts
I actually found the pattern a little bit ambiguous as to how to tell which side of the elongated panel was the right side. In the end, I just put the panel up so that the bind off edge was behind the neck and it looked like the pattern photograph - ie it would be draping over the left shoulder of the wearer - and let that be my guide as to which was the right side and which the wrong side.

I picked up sts along the slip st edge. The pattern was a bit confusing in that it said to pick up sts in the eyelets along the edge. There are actual yo eyelets running parallel to the edge but a few sts in. However, I think that the “eyelets” that the designer is referring to here are probably actually the very tiny gaps behind each slip stitch. As far as I can tell, where I picked up the sts seems to match the pattern photographs.NB: I left a question about this in the comments section on the pattern page. The designer answered very promptly that I had picked up where she intended in this designblushblushblush

In regards to the number of sts to be picked up and where from, I found that keeping in mind there are eleven pattern repeats in the panel, of ten rows each, made it quite simple. If I picked up nine stitches per pattern repeat that would give me 99 sts, meaning I just needed to pick up one extra to get to the required 100sts. Now, the slip stitch edge where I was picking up meant that there was only one slip stitch on the edge per two pattern rows. In order to get to the needed 9 stitches per pattern repeat, I picked up two stitches per slip stitch four times, and then picked up one stitch in the fifth slip stitch, right along the edge, picking up one extra stitch in the last slip stitch. This gave me the needed 100sts.

Whilst knitting the main body, I put a stitch marker b/w the mesh panel and the stocking stitch part, otherwise I am likely to get confused about exactly which stitch it starts on. I also found it handy to put a stitch marker at the point where I was to finish one decrease section and move to the next. That is to say, I put a stitch marker b/w the 53rd stitch from the left edge and the 54th, for the first section. As all of the decreases are along the right edge and are done every row, this meant I could just get on with it and not worry about counting until I had decreased all of the stitches to the right of that marker. Similarly, when I moved onto the second section, I put a marker between the 29th stitch from the left edge and the 30th, for the same reason. Those markers just meant that I didn’t waste time counting sts unnecessarily.

In regard to the change from the first decrease section to the second decrease section in the main body, I am wondering whether the pattern should say to do it when there are 54 sts remaining rather than 53. I was ready to start a wrong side row after the row where I decreased to leave 53 remaining. Of course, I might have miscalculated somewhere along the line! In any case, I ended up just doing the wrong side row that I was up to in pattern, minus decreases, and moving on to the new decrease rate. In effect, this meant that I started the new decrease section when there were 54sts remaining. I should note that I finished the pattern exactly with the end of a mesh panel repeat, so this adds to my suspicion that the second decrease section should start when there are 54sts remaining.

I chose not to bind off after finishing the main body but kept the stitches on hold so I could Kitchener the end onto the bound off edge of the elongated stitch panel. If I had known where exactly the seam would be, I would have put the ends of the elongated stitch panel on hold whilst I knitted the main body, rather than binding them off, in order to avoid a seam at the back neck. When I went to perform the graft, in my excitement about the finish line being close, I pushed thoughts about there not being the same number of stitches on each side to the back of my mind, thinking I could “wing it” and it would “be fine” … I realised about seven stitches from the end, however, that my level of grafting expertise is NOT such that I could “wing it” and, indeed, it would NOT “be fine”!joyjoyjoy (actually, I have come to the realisation that achieving that lovely, professional look to fos has a lot do with all of the boring bits at the end, such as seaming/grafting and blocking… booooo!!!) So, I undid the graft. I checked the number of stitches in the elongated stitch panel, I checked the number of sts I had on the needle at the end of knitting the main body.
… I undid the last row of the main body and redid it with four sts decreased along the way! The stitch counts now matched and the graft proceeded well blushblushblush

I think it would possibly look a little bit better if I had managed to make one end of the graft look like purl bumps instead of knit stitches, but that is a little bit beyond my current level of grafting expertise. Something to remember for next time, though.

I would like to try:
A version where the lace panels are not quite as textured. I am thinking that for the slip stitch mesh you could simply make row 1 knit and row 2 purl (ie, make them stocking stitch rather than reverse stocking stitch) and leave the other rows as they are written. For the elongated stitch panel, I don’t mind there being a ridge either side of the elongated stitches, but I think I would like the eyelets in between the elongated stitches on a stocking stitch ground. I think if you did rows 1-4 on a stocking stitch ground, and rows 8-10 on a stocking stitch ground, that might achieve the look I am talking about. The stitches that create the eyelets running along the length of the elongated stitch panel are quite pretty as is, so I might not change them. Apart from anything else, stocking stitch has a different row gauge to garter stitch, so leaving at least that long edge as garter makes sense. In terms of compensating for the different row gauge with the changes in the rest of this panel, you could try wrapping the elongated stitches only three times each. It might not actually be necessary to change this, though, depending on whether you mind that edge being a little bit “ruffled” or full.

Blocking
It was really difficult to know how to block this (as it is with a lot of highly 3D things. I took some photos of how I did it this time for future reference. We will see how it goes once it is dry.
I will take some measurements once I take it off the blocking paraphernalia…

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Finished
July 26, 2023
July 28, 2023
About this pattern
5 projects, in 33 queues
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felicitymcrowe's adjectives for this pattern
  1. Lovely
  2. Slightly challenging
  3. Beautiful result
About this yarn
by Abbey Road
Aran
100% Cotton
153 yards / 100 grams

528 projects

stashed 515 times

felicitymcrowe's star rating
felicitymcrowe's adjectives for this yarn
  1. Soft
  2. Slight pilling
  3. Nice result
  • Project created: July 26, 2023
  • Finished: July 28, 2023
  • Updated: July 31, 2023
  • Progress updates: 2 updates