swallowtail shawl

I got my new fall 06 Interweave Knits including the new Evelyn Clark Swallowtail Shawl pattern. I had seen the shawl in the online preview. And I had seen the mag last Tuesday at knit night. And I had my yarn on hand [knitpicks gloss, wool and silk fingering weight yarn marketed as a sock yarn]. All other projects are on a temporary break.

I wound a ball of yarn and cast-on. I had to work today (yes, on Saturday, I told you there would be lots of work time for a while) but I knit most of the evening. The pattern/charts are well written. There was a bit of tinking but much progress. I have finished the third repeat of chart 2.


I'm knitting it on 6's (4.25mm) and the gauge feels right. I can't tell whether I'm getting pattern gauge or not. I'd guess not since I'm using a heavier yarn than lace weight and larger needles than called for. But it's my shawl and I like it so that's what counts. On my book. I got three skeins so I have 660 yards. And the pattern calls for 400-some so I'm hoping I have plenty. And if I come to understand the transition between chart 2 and chart 3 I may add an extra repeat or two depending on how big it seems at the end of chart 2 repeats, and how much yarn I have.

Those green strings are my lifelines. I'm putting them in after each repeat of chart 2.

I've finished 3 repeats of chart 2. Of 14. So there's lots more to go. And each row gets longer. I ran some calculations to confirm the pattern stitch counts. And calculated the stitch counts at the end of each repeat of chart 2. I don't want to not get to 195 (at the end of the 14th repeat of chart 2, I'm a bit hung up on 14 repeats, huh? I'm just sayin' that I progressed so quickly from chart 1 to chart 2, then...) and then if I don't have 195, I'll wonder where I went wrong. So here are the chart 2 stitch count numbers, in case they'll be useful to anyone else. The first number is the chart 2 repeat number, the second number is the stitch count at the end of that repeat.

1 39
2 51
3 63
4 75
5 87
6 99
7 111
8 123
9 135
10 147
11 159
12 171
13 183
14 195 jdb 8/12/06



Meanwhile the shrug cuffs are (were) coming along. Here's a pic of the too loose cuff knit on those lovely Brittany Birch 15s. It was frogged and started again on an 16 inch 11us circ but it was a wrestling match to work the cuff around the 16 inch circ so more needle digging yielded two long 11us circs. I think they're both 36 inchers which is too long imho but works. And fortunately though they match pretty well, the tips are different colors (one silver and one light metallic green) which saves me from knitting onto the wrong needle. I'm using a technique which is like what I think some people use to knit two socks on two circs but, of course, I'm doing cuffs. Well, one cuff at a time.

It's late so... more later,
j