. . . Knitting In Progress. . .Schoolhouse Press Knit Alongs
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Knit Along: Pansy Triangle Shawl with Amy Detjen(Knit Along Completed; This page will remain posted until September 30, 2009)(For information on joining the Knit Along yahoo group go to our Knit Along Home Page.) Description: Pansy Triangle Shawl – This is an all-over design of pansy-type flowers in a diagonal lattice pattern. A photo of the lace pattern will be available soon. There is a gusset in the center back that is shaped using Short Rows. It is constructed from side to side so that you may adjust the size as you knit: If you are in love with the pattern, continue on to make a voluminous shawl. If you learn what you came to learn early on, cut the project short and make a cozy scarf.
Yarn Requirements: The shape is a triangle, with all three points nipped off, and a wedge-shaped gusset in the center back. Lean towards “gutsy lace” (medium weight wool on a 9 or 10 needle), but you can certainly use a gossamer yarn and any needles you’d like. I am using Satakieli in color 534 (I like purple). For a 5-foot wide triangle, I’d recommend 900-1100 yards, depending on the size you want to make. For a finer scarf/shawl, I’d recommend either Shetland Laceweight (although there is a disturbing lack of purple in the color selections) or the Spun Icelandic Laceweight. For a full-sized shawl, you’ll need 1400-1500 yards, again, depending on the size you decide upon. Please note: you may certainly use non-purple wool for this project. Gauge/Needles: Again, I’m going to cop out and say “Knitter’s Choice”. If you want lots and lots of knitting, restrain yourself and use a smallish needle (aka “gutsy lace”). If you want an airy, floaty finished product, go crazy and use really large needles and a loose gauge. Techniques: Centered Eyelet – This pattern was designed specifically to showcase the Centered Eyelet, which allows two diagonally lines of eyelets to cross with a hole that leans neither left nor right. When I first tried to design in lace, I was surprised to learn that there was no way to make a nice little hole that didn’t lean. It makes sense, of course, that a k2tog before, or an ssk after a Yarn Over makes the hole slant one way or another. With the help of Robert Powell, Meg Swansen, and Nancy Robinson we were able to unvent a method I call the “Centered Eyelet”.
Short Rows – I’ll show you all three methods of performing Short Rows – the traditional Barbara Walker method, aka Wrap and Turn, the Yarn Over method, and the Japanese method. We’ll also discuss the merits of each.
Basic Lace Tips – I’m hoping to attract some new lace knitters to this Knit Along, so I’ll spend time discussing ways to read your knitting to help you keep your pattern in tact, and ways to fix mistakes from above, without needing to rip back rows and rows of knitting. Amy Detjen's Bio: Amy Detjen is one of Meg’s invaluable teaching assistants at Knitting Camp. Here’s what she says about herself: Although I’ve had designs published in “A Gathering of Lace” and “Sweaters from Camp”, I don’t actually think of myself as a designer, but as a technician. I love to teach and talk and write about knitting most of all, as shown by my past experience as the moderator of the Knit List and Knit U (7 years combined). I love to teach, especially tips and tricks that I’ve learned over my 18 years at Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp. As a technician, I wanted to find a way to knit a Faroese-shaped shawl sideways (the traditional bottom-up and the newer top-down have already been done). I really admire complex lace patterns, but when it comes to actually knitting them, I lean towards repetitive and easy-to-memorize patterns. I also like patterns that let you change your mind mid-stream, so that if you get bored with a project, you can finish it smaller than you had planned. Triangles are perfect for that. Time to knit!
Well, I’m not quite ready to start the Knit Along yet, but I would really like to provide some more information before it begins. To make things easier for us all, I’m going to describe/demonstrate/demystify the Centered Eyelet for you. Trust me, once you’ve done it 4 or 5 times, it will not seem so strange. When I was learning to knit lace (a very long time ago), some wise knitter told me to remember that a Yarn Over will always have a matching decrease. Of course, one should never say “always” or “never”, because you will inevitably be proved wrong. However, the spirit of that comment has lived with me, even though it’s not technically accurate. Let me reword it: In general, if you’re not shaping within the lace, a YO will have a corresponding decrease. When I tried to design lace for the first time, I was surprised to find that Yarn Overs always seemed to lean either left or right, depending on if it was preceded by a k2tog, or followed by an ssk. In the design I had sketched, there was a hole at the bottom of a diamond that I didn’t want to lean. I wanted it to be centered. Try as I might, I could not find instructions for how to do it. My dear friend Nancy Robinson reminded me that a fellow knitting camper, Robert Powell, had demonstrated a 3-into-2 decrease at camp years earlier. I looked it up, and sure enough, there it was (more on that later). So, I played with it, messed with it, and tortured it and came up with the Centered Eyelet. Low and behold, I had impressed my peers. Now you can too, by using it in this design! I highly recommend casting on a little swatch and playing with this, because you will have much more confidence when starting your shawl if you aren’t walking around with a worried look on your face, wondering if you’ll be able to figure it out or not! Here are three examples of the beginnings of the shawl. Notice that on the first two, the Pansies are not centered perfectly. Totally my fault, but on the third sample, it’s fixed. Also notice that on the third one, I started the eyelets in the Garter Stitch border, don’t like that either. Stay tuned for more developments!
This one is in Jamieson & Smith 2-Ply Shetland wool on a US 6 (4 mm) needle. The tiny sheep is hiding a spot where the knitter forgot how to do Garter Stitch, but I promised not to tell.
This one is done with Unspun Icelandic on a US 9 needle.
This one is Satakieli, and not really blocked, just stretched out. I’ll be changing the border in the lower left corner (can’t live with that droop!)
Swatching the Pansy Triangle Shawl If you really want to get started on a swatch, and learn all of the stitches we’ll use in this sample, here are directions for a swatch (give me strength, I’m writing instructions for a swatch!) Actually, I put them into a PDF for easy printing.
Pithy Instructions for the Centered Eyelet First things first. You start with 3 stitches and end up with 3 stitches. The eyelet itself, is formed above the middle of those three stitches (hence the whole “centered” thing…) For this instruction we’ll call them stitches #1, #2, and #3. 1.Slip the first stitch (#1) knitwise. Wait! Don’t get carried away and keep knitting without reading this boring little paragraph first. The downfall of the Centered Eyelet is that if you just blithely knit above it and ignore it, you’ll end up with an eyelet that has a strand of wool across its middle. It’s quite unsatisfactory after spending all that time learning how to do it. Here’s how we make it all better: On the row above the Centered Eyelet: When you get to the YO, you will probably notice that it does not look like a proper stitch. Instead of knitting it (because we’re in Garter Stitch), you want to knit the stitch below it instead. Essentially, you’re knitting that YO together with the stitch beneath it. It tends to look a little sloppy when you do it, but in a few rows, the sloppiness will nestle in. See the photos… Our little swatch is in Garter Stitch, but the shawl has a Stockinette Stitch background. However, the theory is the same. On the row above the eyelet, purl into the stitch below the YO. Again, see the photos… About the 3-into-2 Decrease If you’ve mastered the Centered Eyelet, this will seem very familiar to you: 1.Slip 1 knitwise. It’s the Centered Eyelet without the YO. You needn’t do anything special on the next row. Isn’t that cool? It looks like an ssk next to a k2tog, but you only got rid of one stitch. Genius! October 1, 2008 Begin your Pansy Shawl today. Amy's instructions for Part I can be downloaded as a pdf below.
October 10, 2008 Continue your Pansy Triangle Shawl by downloading Part II. Keep on Knitting!
October 21, 2008 Pansy Triangle Shawl Part III: The Left Wing
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