Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ginkgo Shawl


I am loving making shawls. This is the Ginkgo Shoulderette in Clover Palette Yarn on size 7 knitting needles. I was almost done binding off when I ran out of wool. The third ball started at 49 g, and was still at 49 g when I was all done. 98 g of yarn were consumed in this shawl. When on Raverly I say that this project used under 2 balls of yarn, I mean that it used under 100g.

In the middle of the bindoff when I ran out of the second ball.

I was rushing to cast on so I could have a project while watching TV shows on my computer with Keith, so I didn't have time to figure something new out! I can understand the cast on directions, but my result was so messy I began this shawl as I did the Rough Sea Shawl (casting on 5 sts with long tail cast on.) Cast on 5 sts with long tail cast on. I can see how the Ginnko directions would look better, but I didn't mind the way it loked on the other shawl and it felt so messy as I was trying to pick up stitches here. Because of this modification I didn't start counting my rows until I was at the RS with 7 sts.


The rough sea shawl had 110 rows before the lace (231 sts), and this shawl has 76 rows (159 sts) before lace. There is more lace on this shawl, but I think I will want to make it bigger before starting the lace. I decided to make the larger version by knitting the stockinette until row 106 and then starting the lace. (I have a third ball of clover so I am not worried about running out of yarn.

In Rough Sea, first ball ran out at row 97. In this project, I ran out in the middle of row 99. It is so nice to see consistency!

By my calculations, I thought (turns out wrongly) that there should be 215 sts after row 106. I appear had 219?!? I thought I had two extra stitches on each side, so I decreased 1 st on each side of the center (P3tog through back loop, p3, P2tog) of row 106. Then I look at the chart closer... the 7*15+2 stitches per side does NOT include the garter stitch border. There is an extra two stitches at the end before the repeats start... So I had to undo those extra decreases. This is why you should always double check the chart!

I did the double decrease as Slip 2, K1, Pass both slipped stitches over (S2KP.) As directed in the pattern, I switched to size 8 needles for row 34 and the bind off:
"k2, insert left needle into front of these 2 sts (leave right needle in position) and k2tog. *One st remaining on right needle. K1, insert left needle into front of these 2 sts (leave right needle in position) and k2tog. Repeat from * until all sts are bound off."
I soaked the shawl for 30 min before blocking. I couldn't wait to see it all pinned out! I'm not sure I love the way I blocked it, but I didn't really have any more space on the blocking board.

The shawl before (left) and after (right) blocking.

The ginkgo leaves.