Knitting Friday

(I’m back to normal. Google realized I’m not spam. Not to be dramatic, but Google's big mess of flagging innocent blogs as spam has sucked the zest out of blogging for me on this provider. Someone said: "Well, after all their blogging feature is free." I thought about this for awhile and then figured out if you're a business and you offer a service, free or not, your reputation is out there. Some day, when Google tries to sell paying services there are going to be a lot of people thinking: "Google, what a hassle it was to deal with them. A terrible support system. Just angst all around. Who needs them?")

On to Knitting Friday. Making rectangular shawls on the diagonal:

Almost any two stitch pattern can be converted into a rectangular shawl knit on the diagonal. This is the basic pattern for a two stitch repeat, two row pattern:
(K = Knit; Kfb = Knit front and back of stitch; CO = Cast on; K2tog = Knit 2 stitches together
CO 2 and Kfb in both stitches (4 stitches made)

Row 1: K *work pattern stitch* K
Row 2: Kfb *work pattern stitch* Kkfb Continue these two rows to your width.

Then change Row 2 to: Kfb *work pattern stitch* K2tog Continue these two rows to length.

Then change Row 2 to: K2tog *work pattern stitch* K2tog. Bind off when you have one stitch left.

If your pattern has more than two rows, be sure to make your Kfb or K2tog every other row.

It's so easy. You are knitting on the bias so you may have one side looser than the other but since this is a rectangle you can make this the bottom for a slight flare.

Or, you may find, with some stitch patterns, the ends dip on one side. I've seen that on a lot of "professional" patterns and if you throw one end around you neck to the back, who's going to compare ends?

So look through pattern books and the Internet for two stitch patterns. This will also work with three, four stitch patterns in many cases with some planning. More on this another Knitting Friday. Enjoy.