I’m pulling the plug on this project.

I got through several rows of the very last section of the “first section” of the shawl, then blocked it (while still on the needles). Although I was able to get it into a lot more of a half-circle shape than I’d have thought, considering what it looked like before the blocking, I think it will keep wanting to bulge up in the top center. And in order to block it into shape, the last 4 to 8 rows right before each increase were stretched so tight that you couldn’t even make out the stitch pattern any more.

I was considering changing the 2-into-2 stitch pattern used for the first section to something more stretchy, or using the 2nd stitch pattern for both the first and second sections, but I think I’ll just find a better pattern - this one is a mess.

I’ll leave these notes, though, for anyone else foolish enough to try.

The top photo is what it looked like after a hard blocking. What you can’t really see in the photo is that it sort of ruffles in the middle from trying to force it into a half-circle shape. The rows before each increase are just too tight to allow it to stay in that shape.

The photos at the bottom with the blue/white/brown yarn are just samples I did trying to figure out how to fix the weird top.

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I am probably crazy for wanting to knit this pattern. It was created by someone who has no other patterns, and who is apparently no longer active on Ravelry. There are only few projects - most of which have apparently been frogged or abandoned. The two that were finished had some issues with the pattern having a hump/bump in the center.

I charted the patterns for section 2 and the border. There is a missing YO in row 7 of section 2. The row should end as follows: yo, k3, yo, ssk, k2

There also appear to be errors in the stitch counts after the increases:

For the increase rows of sl1 *yo, k1* in the first section, the formula is:

x = (y x 2) - 1, where x is the new stitch count, and y is the previous stitch count

That should result in stitch counts of 21, 41, 81, and 161.

The next increase (if worked as written) doubles the stitch count exactly. So on a stitch count of 161, it would result in 322 stitches, not 321. It would be impossible to get an odd stitch count.

However, I think this stitch count actually needs to be 323 since the second section requires a multiple of 6 stitches + 11: 52 repeats would be: (52 x 6) + 11 = 323

If that’s correct, then the last increase for section one should be: kf&b, *yo, k1* end yo, kf&b, which would increase from 161 to 323.

The border requires a multiple of 12 (since stitches are joined on every other row of the 24-row repeat), which would be 324 for 27 repeats. But 323 works if you bind off on the 24th row and don’t join a stitch: (27 x 12) - 1 = 323

The cast-on of 11 stitches leaves a weird flat spot at the top of the shawl. Between that and the weird hump shape of the first section, the beginning of the shawl looks like Mt. Fuji.

I think the problem with the hump is caused by two things:

1. the stitch count does not increase rapidly enough at the beginning. The designer arranged the increases around row multiples of 4, to accommodate the stitch pattern. I see why she did that, but it doesn’t work all that well for the first few rows.

2. The stitch pattern used in the first section is not very stretchy widthwise. Additionally, I suspect that the ratio of height-to-width of the individual stitches in the stitch pattern may be a lot different from normal knit stitches. At any rate, the fabric doesn’t want to stretch out sideways as much as with other stitch patterns. That causes the shawl to look more triangular or wedge-shaped for the first part of the shawl. It will block out to some extent, but not quite as much as it should. When trying to block the shawl into a half circle, the final few rows before each increase section for the first stitch pattern were stretched so tightly sideways that you couldn’t even see the pattern anymore.

To correct the weird cast-on, I used a provisional cast-on and was going to graft the starting stitches together. But instead of grafting, I ended up just running the tail end of the yarn through the cast-on stitches and pulling them up tight. That smoothed out the top a bit.

I really don’t think there is much hope of fixing the strange shape of the first section without changing the stitch pattern to something else. Fail.