Okay, so this is a shawl that I made for my sister. This shawl gave me so much trouble, I think its a small miracle I actually finished it. If it hadn’t been for the thought of her poor, cold shoulders at all those fancy lawyer’s wife events she goes to, it might never have happened.
Just to give you an idea of the troubles I have had, this was supposed to be a Christmas present and I just mailed it to her last week. It was wrapped under the tree with needles still in it, so she knew that it was in progress at least. At first I couldn’t figure out the picked up stitch that creates the nice open work. It seems everyone has this problem, because all the pictures I saw of other people’s finished shawls had this kind of crisscrossed openwork, rather than the triangles that are pictured. After much trial and error, I discovered that you have to pick up the stitch as though you are knitting into the back of it. Otherwise, it gets twisted and results in the crisscross. This is not at all clear in the instructions.
Then, after I was motoring along, I ran out of yarn. I used a mohair that I had bought on elann, and of course, I hadn’t calculated the yardage properly and elann no longer had any in stock. Neither did any yarn store in Toronto. I bought a different yarn, knit to the end, decided it didn’t match at all, threw a tantrum, and ripped the WHOLE thing. It was actually kind of satisfying though, to wipe the whole slate clean. Then I started again with larger needles and fewer stitches in the hopes that I could streach the original yarn to complete a slightly smaller, more lacey shawl. And success!
The pattern is from Melanie Falick’s Weekend Knitting
There is now a knitalong for this pattern, if you’re interested. Despite all my troubles, it was actually a nice pattern to knit, and if you learn from my mistakes it should be quite easy!
Posts
The shawl looks lovely! Good thing after all that futzing. I hope your sister will get plenty of use of it.
3/8/2006 @ 2:38 pm
I have that book and i’ve always admired that shawl, and yours looks wonderful. I also admire your persistence! I’ll have to remember this next time I get frustrated with something not turning out exactly like I want it to.
3/8/2006 @ 10:52 pm
I love it! I’m sorry to hear about all the trouble it caused you but I’m glad you succeeded in winning the battle. I’m sure it will get lots of use. Thanks again!
3/9/2006 @ 6:01 pm
Everything is so pretty! Thanks for sharing.
3/9/2006 @ 10:35 pm
Thank you SO much for figuring out what the problem was with the M1 directions!! It had been driving me crazy but I was far enough along in my shawl that I didn’t want to mess around – I just kept going with the twisted stitch and told myself I’d figure out the proper way next time. Now I don’t have to, as you’ve done it! Your shawl is lovely.
4/30/2006 @ 11:43 am
Lovely work! I’m sure your sister will love it. Congratulations! DK
5/3/2006 @ 12:15 pm
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I just started this shawl the other day and I could not figure out why I couldn’t make the triangle ‘holes’ look like the book. I was going to settle for the cobweb look but I didn’t like it as much. I found your post here and read how to make the holes and it worked! Now I’m starting over again (only had 1 wedge done anyway) and it’s looking great. Thanks again.
~ Tanya
7/3/2006 @ 9:53 am
hi, a friend of mine is doing this, and is frustrated with the M1 stitch. can anyone shed more light on how to correct this stitch?
my friend has a lovely head of red curly hair…shame that she is close to ripping it out! HA!
thanks for any additional insight, you all understand how frustrating something like this can be.
JoAnne
5/8/2007 @ 11:36 am