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The good news is that it was a perfect choice for a travel project: almost totally garter stitch meant that I could knit anywhere, any time, while looking out a bus window, in near darkness, while chatting with my fellow tour members. One piece on one circular needle meant nothing to drop or lose; fine yarn meant low luggage bulk and weight. In two weeks (two 12-hour plane flights and several all-day bus journeys meant lots of knitting time) I nearly finished it, and another week at home did the job.
The bad news is: this was the wrong yarn choice for this project--it was too fine. The patterns in the book don't give a gauge, yarn size, or needle size, only how many grams of yarn to use and--critically, it turns out--whether one-ply or two-ply. On rereading the three introductory chapters in the translation, I now find a paragraph (in the Foreword, page 7) that says if the pattern calls for two-ply, one should use something of the weight of shetland wool. And I suppose, a larger needle than a seven. By the way, even at this smaller size, the shawl took more than four 50-gram (225m) skeins of the laceweight, about 1000 meters, I'd estimate.
Anyway, my shawl came out about 2/3 the size it should have been to amply wrap me. It was
apparent about halfway through the trip that it was not getting longer
nearly fast enough, but there was nothing I could do at that point but keep
on, hoping I was wrong. The neck-to-hem length at the center back is about
24 inches, coming just below my waist. My gauge, measured after blocking
(and stretching as much as I can get away with) is 22 sts and 18 ridges per
4 inches (10 cm) in garter stitch.
I wouldn't have despaired if I had guessed how much my smaller friend Carol would love her new shawl!
There are several things I DID do right:
--I used red stitch markers to mark the decrease lines on the right side of
the shawl, and blue on the left. This way I could easily tell whether I was
working a right side or a wrong side.
--I correctly calculated the placement of the optional lace pattern around
the lower edge, and executed it perfectly. Details according to my notes: the pattern is 25-stitch repeat, with the end repeats being 36 sts to accommodate the triangle points. Work the eyelet border on the row where your stitch count stands at 6+197+25+197+6, which is after the 11th decrease row.
--I tried a new trick in an attempt to make the edges a bit thicker, and it
worked pretty well. I cast on one extra stitch on each edge, and ended each
row with slip-one-purlwise, knit one, and began each row with
slip-one-knitwise, knit one. It's a sort of two-stitch purly I-cord edging.
The fear was that it would pull up due to the slipped stitches, but I kept
it loose and it worked nicely.
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