Sunday 25 July 2010

Good news, bad news, good news, bad news...

After the success of Maia I thought I'd try another shawl shape - a crescent.  The Annis pattern from Knitty had caught my eye so I picked out some gorgeous yellow-y gold-y Posh Yarn Eva lace weight from the stash and cast on.

The good news - the shawl knits up very quickly.  You cast on 360ish stitches, knit 15 long rows and then decrease around 100 stitches over 3 rows.  You then  finish up the shawl with a bit of zen short row knitting to give the crescent shape and heh presto you are done.

The bad news - well, even as I cast on (using a larger needle as recommended by the pattern) I was concerned that it wasn't going to be stretchy enough to give my nice points along the edge.  And it definitely wasn't. It was difficult to get the points to be pointy during blocking. If I were to make another one I'd replace the cast on with the cast on used on Ene's Shawl or any of the shawls in Estonian Lace Knitting. (Basically, holding the yarn double you cast on with a knitted cast on.)

More good news - the crescent shape is great.  Very wearable.  Sits nicely on the shoulders, and can be worn a number of ways.

Final bad news - although the colour of the yarn is gorgeous and I like the shape- I'm not in love with the finished shawl.  (I do like the pointy bits to be pointy and these just aren't.) 

I may frog it and try another crescent shaped shawl with the same yarn (or maybe this pattern with a different cast on) .

10 comments:

fleegle said...

Would any stretchy cast-on do? I use a German twisted cast-on with a yarnover after every stitch when I need a super-stretchy edge. Or is there something else going on there to prevent the points from pointing?

It's really lovely--sunny color.

Anonymous said...

What a pity that the bottom isn't pointy enough, it's lovely in all other respects. Thanks for the warning though, I intend to make it soon myself.

LittleBerry said...

gorgeous shawlette and I love the colour too.... but it's a shame it doesn't do it for you.

Fiona Reynolds said...

Looks lovely. The subtle points make a refreshing change from the dagger sharp points of other patterns. I genuinely mean that but I'm wondering if that "spin" changes your mind? :-) It is lovely.

Anonymous said...

Instead of frogging what is otherwise a lovely shawl, what if you sewed a teardrop-shaped bead at each point? That would at least give the illusion of a point.

Opal said...

it's too bad that you aren't happy with it, i think it's truly lovely!

Helen (Fuss Free Flavours) said...

It is lovely, I still cannot get over what a fast knitter you are.

I am stuck on choosing my next pattern, there are 3 doiley blankets I want to make - which one first?

Anonymous said...

I think the non-pointy points look great with the circular shape. Are you sure they have to be pointy? It's really lovely just as it is to my way of thinking.

Linda said...

I like it as it is! Beautiful colour and I like the less pointy points.

Janiannie said...

I love the last picture! Had to check the pattern to see why you aren't too happy with it...do see what you mean but yours is so lovely, couldn't you just pretend it was a totally different pattern? Never thought of a crescent shawl, what a good idea!