Thursday, July 26, 2007

Miniature leaf Triangle Shawl

Several years ago, I bought one 273 yard skein of Great Adirondack Silk Delight, in Orchid, a lavender, blue, grey, green and purple colorway. It was lovely silk, but I couldn't decide what to make of it, as I only had the one skein. . Last month I played around and made a shrug, using the same pattern I'd used on the black one, but with short sleeves. I finished the piece, but didn't find it flattering. So, I had fun frogging it entirely. Then I thought it would be nice to see if I could make a triangular shawl, using the same stitch pattern, and graphed it out. I liked how the repeats fell regularly, and soon I was happily knitting along on size 10 needles. I had no idea how large it would be, exactly, and I wanted a little bit of a different edging, so as the ball got smaller and smaller, I knit and pondered. ( I also read Harry Potter 7 while I was knitting it, it was such a simple stitch pattern.) Finally I realized I could weigh the yarn remaining with my kitchen scale, so to determine how much to leave for the edging and the bindoff. After about 85 rows, I was ready. I had 12 gm left. I knit another row,and had 10 gm left. So I figured I could knit 3 more rows, so I had 4 gm left for the bind off. I was thrilled that it worked out exactly and I had 2 feet of yarn left at the end! It blocked out at 55 inches wide and 31 inches long, and it was a fun knit. I think my next challenge will be a variation with a straight section in the middle, like the Fareose shaping, to make it slightly wider and to fold better on the body, as the triangle does fall off easily! Now I need a nice shawl pin...

Cat is for scale...