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Monday, August 2, 2010

FO: Sunday Market Shawl

Knitting in progress



Love the gradual change in colours

This is the very first shawl that I have knitted and you know what, it's gonna be my favourite. I just know it.

I got the pattern from Knit Fish via Ravelry. (By the way, my Ralvery username is gwenstella.) When I saw the yardage required to complete this shawl, I immediately thought, "ah, the perfect project for my 2 miserable balls of variegated green Beauty yarn that I bought from Spotlight a year ago!"

You see, some knitters, like me, have this very bad habit of buying yarns on sale and not knowing what to do with them. The yarn was at a discounted price of just A$1 per ball!!! Who could resist? So I got 2 green ones and 2 purple ones. Now I am just wondering if I should make the same shawl for someone using the other 2 purple ones.

The pattern is actually an ingenious idea of dropping stitches in the LAST ROW. I was initially confused by the pattern because I just did another drop-stitch scarf a while ago. But as you can tell from the numerous comments under the post on Knit Fish, many people were confused too.

And just another pointer for people who are thinking of casting on, you will have to think about having a stretchy bind-off (in addition to a loose cast on). The stretchy armstrong bind-off by Bella Knitting worked like a charm for me.

Blocking in progress and with the stitches dropped

Last but not least, please do not be lazy, BLOCK THE FINAL PRODUCT! I have to admit that I was really tempted to NOT block at all. I have never been very used to blocking stuff because I have only been making hats and scarves all this while. But boy am I glad that I blocked. It turned out so beautiful. (For non-knitters, blocking refers to stretching the knitted product into the optimal shape and size, then making it stay by steam-pressing it. The method of blocking will vary, depending on the type of fibre used. Anyway I am not an expert in this field and I shall not dwell too much on this topic lest I embarrass myself in any way.)

Last but not least, I will also be writing a tutorial on how to wear this shawl in 8 different ways!!! Hee hee hee, you can tell how much I really love this shawl.


P.S.: This is getting kind of awkward because I am writing this in the school's library with a coursemate sitting next to me. To make things worse, I am actually currently wearing this shawl. (-_-x)

4 comments:

Hello Naka said...

this is great ^^ i should shouldf really join ravely :3

Anonymous said...

Qi............sooooooooooooo pretty...awwwwww........I am lost for words.....I'm still struggling practicing the knit and purl stitches. I dont think I can make this.....Really......After looking at yours I have no confidence whatsoever. :(

gwenstella said...

anonymous (susie)! why!? don't worry too much, and don't think too much about it. just start knitting and let your fingers do the rest. failure is a stepping stone to success!

Courtney said...

This is great. One of the first scarves I made was for my mom, and it ended up being a really weird shape for a scarf (to wide and to short). So I'm thinking I'm going to block it and turn it into a shawl so she can wear it like this :)