In the comment section for yesterday's post on my home-school blog about Tasha Tudor Day, Carmie mentions that the instructions for the TT Shawl look pretty un-mindless to her. I thought I'd post what the pattern is basically -- you start with 3 stitches, and purposely add holes and increase a stitch every row until the shawl is wide enough.
This is the mindless part as you do the first 4 stitches each row the same way; all those other stitches are just knit stitches.Here are some pictures and explanations of those first 4 sts:
The first stitch -- and you do this EVERY ROW -- is simply wrapping the yarn around the needle to "make a stitch". 
This is the second stitch -- knit the first two stitches on the left-hand needle together as if they are just one stitch. You will now have 2 stitches on the right-hand needle. 
For the third stitch, bring the yarn forward between the two needles as if you were going to purl a stitch. Instead, wrap the yarn around the needle and you'll knit the next stitch. 
Here are the first four stitches on the right-hand needle.[NOTE: The first two rows don't have you do the k2tog, just the wrap at the beginning of the row.]
Again, this is the mindless part ... and takes a while as the finished shawl is 60" wide. You can stop at any time and make this shawl a doll shawl or one for a child (should be approximately the length from wrist to wrist when arms are straight out). This is the nice thing about this pattern as you can stop when you're tired.
Once I get to a suitable length, I will post close-ups of how to do the lace border/bind-off. If the lace part scares you, you can always leave the shawl without the lace edging, binding-off the top as a normal bind-off. It's a very elegantly simple shawl either way.
Oh, and as far as circulars go ... they're easier to use than straights as you don't have the knobs that catch on your clothes, pulling out the stitches you've worked so hard to put on the needles (this has happened a bit too often for me so I almost always use circs). They take a bit of getting used to and I'd recommend a 16" or 20" to start out.
2 comments:
Hello, I've been looking at your pattern for the Norwegian Mailbag in the Cast On magazine. I have a question and hope you don't mind my asking. (I googled your name and found the By Hand, With Heart... blog that way.) I'm curious about the number of skeins of Heilo yarn required. Ten total skeins seems like it would be about double the amount necessary to make the bag. I was wondering if you need to hold two strands together, but then that wouldn't seem to work right with the indicated gauge. So any advice that you could offer would be great. Oh, and I work as a paraprofessional in a classroom of 25 first graders at a small Catholic school in Rogers, Minnesota. (When I'm not knitting that is!)
Thanks,
Kaidy
Katherine,
Yes, you do need 4 skeins of mc, and 3 sks of each of the cc's .... the final dimensions of the bag (21 - 25 inches around x 12-1/2 long + the flap and the strap (which is doubled) mean that it's like making a sweater for a child ....
If I remember, you're using almost the full 4 skeins of mc, and a full 2 + a bit of the 3rd skein for each of the cc's ...
Does that help?
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