I just finished blocking my latest in what appears to be a series of epic knits. This one is a shawl. Shawls aren't such a big deal, I know. But consider that the pattern is written entirely in German (a language I neither speak or read) and the designer chose to invent his own little system of knitting symbols that weren't even comparable to the symbols of other designers.
Because of this it all seemed very daunting when I first got the pattern and looked at the charts. However help was at hand and I found some very useful bits and pieces around Ravelry that allowed me to understand the symbols and figure out where to start.
With my trusty translation notes in hand, I ordered some beads and started re-charting. The re-charting took me far less time than I thought it would and I had knitted as far as row 39 before bed that same night.
It took me a total of sixteen days (including the inevitable ripping back of half the damn shawl to fix a gradation issue) to complete the knitting part of the shawl (including the beading which slowed me down immensely).
Funnily enough, this is exactly how long it took me to complete my first lace shawl too. Anyhoo, its all finished and blocked and full of beady awesomeness. Here's some pics...
The gradation didn't turn out quite how I had hoped it would. But this is the first time I've tried to spin a gradated yarn so I'm chalking that up to experience. I'm still quite happy with how the shawl turned out. The beading is quite subtle and the yarn is lovely and soft. The whole things weighs less than 120g and it should be wonderfully warm for winter.
No comments:
Post a Comment