03-15-2018

Notes on sizing and pattern:

I’m a lot bigger than Lupita N’yongo so I’m going to need to size this up to fit me. I’ll need to measure how long it would need to be to wrap around me the way she wears it. Once I have a measurement in mind, I will do some maths and figure out how much length I need to add, and then repeat sections of chart or possibly chart out something new that blends with the stuff that’s already there. I need to analyze the chart anyway and make sure I understand what’s happening with it before I launch into the actual knitting.

Notes on yarn substitutions:

So the actual yarn used in the shawl as seen on-screen is nearly impossible to come by, as all online sources have been picked clean. I was able to come pretty close through a combination of luck and going to local yarn shops that don’t sell online.

Here is what I’m using compared to what is called for in the pattern:

1) Noro Silk Garden in color 430 (Message in a Bottle): I found 3 balls of 430 at a LYS and another ball in an adjacent colorway that was extremely similar looking (will look at the band and see what it is later.) (EDIT: This color is 360. It has more blue and less brown than 430 but the greens are nearly identical so I think it will blend really nicely. )I also have two balls each of 426 and 417. The 417 I got is sadly almost all the browns and tans and almost none of the greens, and the 426 has very bright bluish greens and bright coral, so I don’t think they will blend well, but I will keep the 417 in reserve if I need to add some brownish contrast.

2) Malabrigo Mechita in Hojas: Again, this is sold out everywhere but you can still find this color in other bases. Mechita is a single-ply fingering weight and the pattern calls to knit with two ends at once, so good substitutes would be another of Malabrigo’s single-ply bases in a heavier weight knit single or another of their fingering weight knit double, or if you can’t get that, one of their heavier plied yarns. I couldn’t get Hojas in their Worsted, Rastita, or their Silky Merino, but I did find some in Rios, so I got that and an extra skein (to help when I make it bigger.)

3) Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Plaid Blanket - I lucked out and grabbed this online before it disappeared everywhere.

4) Madelinetosh Dandelion in Shire: This has been the toughest yarn to substitute for, because both the base and the color are discontinued. Dandelion is a linen-blend yarn, so it has a slightly different texture, but it was roughly equivalent to their Merino Light. It’s another single-ply fingering weight, and it’s quite small - I’d almost call it a light fingering. I decided that the linen blend texture was less important to the general look and feel of the shawl than the color combinations, so decided to focus my efforts on finding good color substitutes. The challenge with Shire was that it’s a handpaint (not a self-stripe) and it contains blues, blue-greens, true greens, yellowy-greens, and coppery-browns, and it’s overall quite saturated and vibrant when you look at various photos. Most of the yarns I looked at as a substitute were either too much to either the blue-and-green end or the green-and-copper end of the spectrum, and the ones with a lot of the right colors were often either too light or too muted to really give the right look. In the end, I selected three different yarns to substitute that all seemed like they would bring the right feel to the work:

• Manos del Uruguay silk blend - the color is Deep Sea. This is a single-ply DK wool/silk blend and it has a good mix of blue, green, and brown tones. It is a lot more muted than Shire but looks great with the other yarns so it should blend in nicely.
• Malabrigo Mechita in Ninfas - a different colorway of Malabrigo that is pretty similar to the colors in Shire. The Ninfas doesn’t have as much of a coppery pop in its browns, but they are definitely there and should blend really nicely and it should play well with the other yarns.
• Berroco Millefiori Light in 6888 Iris - I wouldn’t usually like to use an acrylic blend in a piece that is otherwise all wool and silk, but I saw a sample in the LYS made of this yarn and it looks like a great color substitute for Shire, plus it has some varieties of texture that I think will work with the varied textures of the shawl and make up a bit for not having the linen blend to play with. Worked up, it comes out a bit more stripey and less speckley/pool-y than Shire but the colors look really similar and the Millefiori has a pop of turquoise worked into it that should help get that gleam of color that the Shire would have provided.

I also have a ball of Plymouth Gina (a long self-stripe) in a mix of greens that blends well with all these colors that I will keep on hand if I need to stretch the supply more as I make it bigger.

All in all, I should have plenty of extra yarn to increase the size: one ball of the Millefiori, one skein of Mechita, and two skeins of the Silk Blend to substitute for one skein of Merino light (and the Millefiori and Silk Blend will likely be knit with one end instead of the two called for). Additionally I got two skeins of Rios (knit with one end) to substitute for one skein of Mechita (knit with two ends). I also have a ball of Gina and some extra Noro that could possibly sub in here or there.

Right now the next steps are to take the measurements in the pattern and determine how much bigger I need the finished piece to be, and then calculate what alterations I need to make (bigger needle size, adding chart repeats, etc) to make that happen. Sadly, I’m probably going to have to do a bit of swatching to make sure it all comes out right.

I may also decide to alter where the color changes fall in the original pattern, because I’m not the biggest fan of the really long section of Noro in the on-screen version; I may want to break that section up a bit with some of the tonals instead. I might also add some sections that combine yarns, especially where I have fingering to be knit double - so in some places I might do one end of Mechita and one end Tosh Merino Light for a while instead of two ends of just one of them, or combine the Tosh Merino Light with one of the DK-weight yarns for a bit.

Basically, this piece is meant to have a sort of homespun, stitch-sampler, lots-of-texture-and-color feel to it, so I think there’s room to improvise within the structure, especially since it looks different in different spots so the appearance will vary a lot based on how you wear it.

03-16-2018

Sizing notes:

To figure out how big this piece would need to be on me in order to fit like the movie one does, I used waste yarn to measure how wide it would have to be to go from over my shoulders (about where the bra strap sits) to mid-forearm, like you can see in the costume display photos. 23” - the pattern width - should work, so I don’t have to worry about adding width. Next, I measured how long it would need to be for me to be able to wear it like it’s displayed on the mannequin - around the waist, twisted, and over the shoulders, either over the head or on the shoulders. To fit and drape very loosely, I came up with 120 inches - quite a lot more than the model, but that makes sense since I’m quite a bit bigger than Lupita. However I’m a bit worried about whether I have enough yarn to make a TEN FOOT LONG wrap, awesome though it is. So, time for maths.

The original yardage as given on the pattern is :

• 375 m Noro knit single - 375 m length
• 335 m Mechita knit double - 167.5 m length
• 264 m Dandelion knit double - 132 m length
• 594 m Merino Light knit double - 297 m length

For a total LENGTH OF YARN of 971.5 m length - let’s round up to 975 to account for ends and such to be on the safe side - to make a scarf 23 inches wide and 86 inches long. Since mine can be the same width, we’ll just look at length - that is 11.34, or to be safe we’ll round up to 12, meters of yarn needed on average to make one linear inch of the shawl. (This does have a nice lot of extra padding in the estimation but again I’d rather this be loose than tight.)

So in order to make 120 linear inches instead of 86, I would need 120x12, or 1,440 meters of yarn.

The yarn I’ve gathered, not including my “back up balls” that aren’t QUITE the right colors, are:

• Noro 430 - 299 meters knit single - 299 meters length
• Noro 360 - 99.7 meters knit single - 99.7 meters length
• Millefiori Light - 320 meters knit double - 160 meters length
• Mechita - 384 meters knit double - 192 meters length
• Merino Light - 768.1 meters knit double - 384.05 meters length
• Gina - 99.7 meters knit single - 99.7 meters length
• Silk Blend - 274.3 meters knit single - 274.3 meters length
• Rios - 384 meters knit single - 384 meters length

So right now I have 1,892.75 meters of knittable length available, which is great; it gives me room to play around with things like knitting the Silk Blend (a DK) with one strand of a fingering to bulk it up a bit more and add more color blending, AND I can aim for the giant, generous shawl to wrap all the way around me twice with plenty room to spare for drape or an extra loop for head coverage.

The row gauge given in the pattern is 18 rows to 4 inches. I need to add 34 inches to the pattern. That’s 4 inches 8.5 times, so assuming I make gauge, I will need to add a total of 153 rows to make it come out the right length.

03-16-2018

Cast-on and Selvage

I’m going to add a three-stitch selvage to each side of the wrap to help it not curl - I know the original doesn’t have this but i prefer it. It will also give me some wiggle room when I add sections if I need to fiddle with the stitch count for a pattern stitch. Also, I’ll slip the selvage to make a prettier edge (work to last stitch, slip last stitch purlwise, knit slipped stitch through back loop on the next row).

03-16-2018

Note on charts: I’m re-charting this to adhere to hand knitting chart conventions before I start. I’m going to be breaking the charts into sections; charts numbered 1, 2, 3, etc will be from the original pattern, while 1a, 1b, 2a, etc will be things that I am inserting into the pattern between sections.

Note: throughout work there is a three-stitch moss stitch selvage on either side of pattern stitches (middle 84 stitches).

Begin: CO 90 with provisional CO in Noro 430. Work Chart 1 (Stockinette st with six twisted-stitch motifs.) You will have just finished Row 28.

Adding length, part one: 153 rows left to add.

Join Mechita in Ninfas (held double). Work Chart 1a. Chart 1a has a row of Jeweled Boxes motifs in between two rows of reverse stockinette. 18 rows added: 135 rows left to add.

Join Rios in Hojas. Work Chart 2. Chart 2 picks up at Row 29 of original chart. After Chart 2 you will have just finished Row 54 on the original pattern.

Adding length, part two: 135 rows left to add.

Join Silk Blend in Deep Seas. Work Chart 2a. Chart 2a has some gently textured fleck stitch and a few rows of cross stitch for visual interest. 10 rows added: 125 rows left to add.

Join Plaid Blanket held double. Work Chart 3. Chart 3 picks up at row 55 of the original pattern and goes through the end of row 98.

Time for the diagonal eyelet join!
Work Chart 4 with Plaid Blanket and a Shire fingering substitute TBD: probably either the Ninfas or the Millefiori. This chart includes the section containing the diagonal eyelet join and two rows stockinette afterward (rows 99 through 146).

Notes on Chart 4: I reversed the direction of the join so that I could continue working with the Plaid Blanket without having to break the yarn and re-join. The downside is that the shaping ends up mainly being on the purl side, but it’s easy enough to do.

Adding length, part 3: 125 rows left to add.

Join one strand of Mechita Ninfas and one of Silk Blend, held together. Work Chart 4a. 26 rows added.

Notes on chart 4a:

To do the Estonian Braid, work the three selvage stitches and then cast on one stitch to the left needle using a cable or knitted CO. K1 through the back loop of the SECOND stitch on the left needle, then without removing the stitch from the left needle, K1 through the FRONT loop (normal way) of the FIRST stitch on the needle, then drop both the first and second stitches from the left needle. Slip one stitch (the one you just made) from the right needle to the left, and repeat from the. When you get to the last stitch before the selvage, knit it and then pass the second stitch on the right needle over that stitch and off the needle. Note that the row of stitches after the Estonian Braid will be taller than normal.

To do the Dandelion stitch motif: insert your needle into the center hole of the stitch three stitches down from the SECOND stitch on the left needle and pull up a loop, making sure to keep it loose enough not to pucker the work. K2. Pull up a second loop through the same hole. K2. Pull up a third loop through the same hole, continue across. On the next row, when you get to the loops, purl each loop together with the stitch next to it, so as you go across the dandelion motif you’ll do p2tog, p, p2tog, p, p2tog.

I drew up loops using only the silk blend to make them less bulky.

Join Noro 430. Work Chart 4b.

Join Millefiori held double. Work Chart 4c.

75 rows added: 50 rows left to add.

Join Silk Blend or other Shire sub. Work Chart 5. Chart 5 picks up at row 147 of the original pattern and goes through row 185.

Join Noro. Work Chart 6. Chart 6 picks up at row 186 of the original pattern and goes through 294. Note: this is the big long stripe section - I may decide to break it up depending what yarn is left and how I’m feeling.

Join Shire sub or Hojas. Work Chart 6a. (repeat of weave and wrap section from earlier maybe?) 6a should add 25 rows.

Join Plaid Blanket. Work Chart 7. Chart 7 is row 295 - 334 of the original pattern (the leafy lace motif section.)

Join Shire sub or whatever looks good. Work Chart 7a. Chart 7a should add the last 25 new rows. Should look good reversed as this is getting close to the end of the strip and this part will be flipped to make the mobius join - should be reverse-stockinette based or something that looks the same both sides.

Join Hojas. Work Chart 8. Chart 8 is row 335 - 356 of the original pattern.

MERCIFUL HEAVENS IT’S TIME TO FINISH UP. Weave in anything that needs it, join the ends to make a mobius scarf, give it a gentle block to even out the width, and pray for a sudden cold snap so you can wear it without melting, unless it’s taken long enough to make that it’s cold again.

03-18-2018

Started uploading charts. PLEASE NOTE that these are just translations of the original pattern into the format of chart hand-knitters use, with some additional sections I put together to add length. I’ve broken the charts up so that you should mostly only need one color yarn on each chart, and they should be able to be printed fairly large on a landscape-oriented piece of paper for those of you who have bad eyes like me and have to zoom the original chart way in.

NOTE. You should also keep a copy of the instructions for the special stitches (the weave and wrap, twisted stitches, etc) from the original pattern. I’ve done my best to reproduce them on the charts but they aren’t standard ones so they weren’t built into the software I use.

I’ve just started Chart 1 today. If you discover any issues with the charts please let me know, and if I find any I’ll update them as I go. I hope this helps everyone else trying to make this amazing wrap by hand!

3/27/18

The super awesome designer of this wrap has updated the pattern for hand knitting!!! From now on I will likely only do charts of the parts I’m adding to make it longer (unless I end up making my own for some other reason.)

04-04-2018

Just cast on the Noro for the long cabled section! A note: I’m going to keep re-charting the originals as I go, because the HK version the designer posted is too hard for me to read. I prefer the convention where a dot is a purl on the RS rows and a knit on the WS rows, and a clear space is a knit on the RS rows and a purl on the WS rows. It’s a little more to remember, but it makes it a lot easier for me to see the pattern in the design when it’s done that way. Plus, I need the charts to be bigger. So I’m doing them as I go and posting them for any who also prefer that chart style.

I’m also thinking about adding some beading in some of my new added-length sections. Not a lot, just some here and there if I can think of something that works, mainly just to add a little more visual interest. I have some copper and bronze beads that should go really nicely with the colors. Maybe do another Estonian braid later and add some beading on the row of longer knits right after it…

04-11-2018

Notes on the cable section:

I’ve seen a lot of people doing this on the wrong side, so that the cables show. However, if you look closely at the images from the movie, the ribbing section definitely has the stockinette side showing. As written, the pattern is using cables on the wrong side of the work to make a subtle textural effect in the narrow purl part of the ribbing.

About to head into the last two sections, I need to work out patterning for the sections to make it long enough for me. I’m going to insert something before the lace section, I think, but I need to look at what I have and what else I want to figure out what to put there.