Thursday, August 2, 2018

Shawls with shifting shapes




I want to start today’s blog by letting you all know that I am cutting back on the frequency of my posts ( yet again).
I am intending to write one post per month ( first Thursday of every month).
AT THE SAME TIME I am posting more things on my Facebook page with interactive posts every Wednesday “ What’s on my needles Wednesday “ where you can share your own projects in the comments.  It is like a virtual knitting group.
Every Friday there will be a thread “ Fashion Friday” featuring a knitted garment to give some inspiration on what to knit next.  You will see that I wear a lot of knitted things...and always a shawl as accessory.
So my request to you is to stay loyal to my blog, but also to check out my Facebook page.
Knit With Doris Discover Your Inner Knitter

BIRDS OF A FEATHER SHAWL

This week I finally finished the shawl I was working on for The Knitting Garage at Stickles.
I had started end of January on this in the beautiful Hedgehog Fibers Skinny Single (100% Merino) and Hedgehog Fibres Kidsilk Lace (70% Goat-Mohair and 30% Silk).
To be fair I only started on it for real two months later due to a surgery on my hand and travel and even then you must remember that I work on store samples only during down time while working at the shop.  To be honest, this could be excellent TV knitting as you get used to the repetitive knitting.
What makes this shawl stand out in my opinion is the switch between the two yarns with the Merino appearing more solid and the Kidsilk more ethereal. 
The other fascinating thing about this shawl is its shape. once you reach a certain number of stitches you stop increasing and shift the center stitch of the chevron all the way to the end of the row thus making a straight line here and voila:  you have a triangle!
Click here for my extensive notes on ravelry:  Birds Of a Feather

Do you see where my needle is?! The bind off will be in line with one edge :)

Blocking

It seems that other designers have used this clever trick, too.  To name but a few
Laura Aylor in her pattern Rift. 


And also Tammy Gore in her pattern The Drifter.




It is a truly beautiful piece, but if you are intimidated by the sheer size of it, please note that you can knit up a smaller version as done by Lino on ravelry.


TAKE IT ALL

I have also been working on the shawl "Take It All" by Lisa Hannes.
This one, too, ends up being more triangular due to the final section of short rows :)
After section Seven you have an asymmetrical triangle.  Then you add an appendix of short rows thus making a shift to almost symmetry.


The hardest part with this shawl was for me to choose the colors, but then I used colors as close to the ones one of our customers used.  These are colors a little out of my usual color palette, but they make me smile every time I look at them.
You can use one to eight contrasting colors.  I went with the eight and bought unicorn tails for each contrasting color ( Hint:  The knitting Garage has lot us of them to choose from!). 
 
Check this shawl out here:   Take It All