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Knitting Friday

I thought I would post some progress about my latest diet on occasional Fridays. Sort of like a periodic pep talk to myself. Well, I'd like to report: no progress so far. OK, I think my face looks a little leaner but the skirt which didn't fit two weeks ago, still doesn't. I'm adding 1/2 hour of treadmill exercise every day I can but not really changing my diet except not to grab "just one pretzel" between meals. For some reason, in the last week, ice cream has played a more prominent place in my diet than I would like. (Yeah, I know, someone is holding me down and shoving ice cream in my mouth.) Let's see where that is going to lead me.

Two strands of crochet cotton

On to knitting. First, at right is one of my ubiquitous tops but this one is done in 2 strands of crochet cotton so we're talking about medium lace weight. I'm knitting it on US10 in a K one row and *YO, K2tog* the second row in the round. It's that second row which is going make this fit because when you're done it looks so small; but does it stretch! I'm making this because I love lace yarn but I just don't have the patience, nor the talent, to knit successfully with it. Crochet is a different story but I would love to knit a lace weight top and finish it in my lifetime. It looks like two strands of lace will work but as Caesar said as he crossed the Rubicon: The die is cast. Once I join two strands, there is no going back.

Unblocked

Blocked

Remember the unblocked shawl on the left from last week? Here it is blocked in a difficult-to-see picture on the right. The final shape is a slightly wonky crescent (here, the bottom of shawl is at the top) which is 72" long, 32" wide at the center and 10" wide at the ends, which makes for easy tying and adding a shawl pin. All these shawls have a personality of their own for some reason. This one reminds me of knitting with straw. 

And finally, remember I said that in the picture on the left the top of the picture is the top of the shawl? Now, that looks real wonky! It looks slightly better in the right picture after blocking but not much. 

To modify the wonkiness, I've changed the cast on. Before, I used to start these shawls with CO 5 and single crochet into the first chain from the hook to form a loop. Turn, then basically just work a  *chain 5, sc in loop* across adding two loops in a previous loop at the ends for increases when necessary until you're finished.

Top of shawl folded down

Now I chain 30 in a slightly larger hook than will use in the body of the shawl and work my first double crochet (not single crochet) for a loop in the 10th chain from the hook. Then I chain 5 and work a double crochet in every 5th chain across which eliminates much of the point you see in the picture on the left because I end up with a 5 loop base rather than a 1 loop base. (I'm sure this cast-on row could be tweaked even more.)

At the right, you can see the same shawl where I folded over the top to make a small collar.  Another change I use now is to make the loops with a double crochet rather than a single crochet. This makes a fish net look. If you don't like this look, you can still use a single crochet which adds more substance. Of course, my problem is that I never know how much yarn I have and a double crochet makes a larger shawl faster.

Lately, I've been making this pattern in crochet but it works in knit also. (The instructions can be found in a previous Knitting Friday and next week, I'll reprint my revised pattern.)

I really want to add this shawl to the Small Shawl patterns forum at Ravelry for free. It's a small "thank you" for all the free stuff I get there. Unfortunately, I want to make sure it's perfect before I do since, after looking at all the beautiful free patterns available, my pattern is really the very poor relative the table.

Next week: The revised pattern for the shawl above.

Two weeks from now: Some helpful (I hope) hints on beginning the Emily Ocker's Cast On. This is a fantastic CO for circular knitting like round shawls, hats or socks.

See you then. Happy knitting.