05-03-2021

Starting with rewound Viola yarn (so much spit splicing after the sweater mishap). I’ve got 265g wound in the colour combos that appeal most - left out the 47g of browner variegated yarn (now given away).

137 g - lighter yarn (more pink and green)
128 g - darker yarn (more blue)

Note: bluer yarn is in plastic bags (so you’ll know which yarn you’re alternating with at any given time).

This pattern calls for ~330g of yarn at the smaller side so I’ll have to decide if I want to break into the brown yarn (nope) or if I’ll make this smaller. Work on US 7 given that I want to ensure drape of fabric and to get things as large as possible given the amount of yarn I’ve got…

05-03-2021

265g comes to 651 yards - I’m going to see if I can salvage another 50g of the stash (that isn’t that muddy brown). That’ll give me another 123 yards or a total of 774 yards…

Re: info above - I had another 47 grams set aside but it’s pretty darned brown. I gave this away because the brown just wasn’t working with the other skeins and I’d prefer that someone else have a chance to experience the yarn.

Will I have enough yarn to make the smaller size or will I have to downsize that? At the pink open marker, I have 135g left of the yarn - that’s at the point at which I’ve knitted 19 of the 25 repeats of chart C1. Given that this is half of my yarn, right now I feel like I’ll be able to make this to small size but I should pay attention to how many g of yarn the 20th 8 row repeat uses up to get a better sense of things.

Estimation of Yarn Requirement:

Note that there are 22 rows to knit after the end of section C1 (which is 25, 8-row repeats or 200 rows). The final 22 rows will be the longest of the project so you might have to allot more than 50g to them. See below for more:

At start of 8 row repeat 20 (of 25 instructed) I had 135g of yarn. Repeat 20 took 10g of yarn - at end of it I’m at 125g yarn remaining.

(Check the amount of yarn used for repeat 21. Depending on whether it remains 10g or goes to 11g or higher will give valuable info on when I need to move into the final sections / leave C1 chart.)

At end of repeat 21 I’ve got 113g so I used 12g - more than anticipated though I might have been right on the edge of 125g last time i.e. closer to 124. At any rate, yarn use has gone up by at least 11g and I have to assume each repeat I will use an extra gram over and above what I used during the previous repeat.

Let’s assume that each additional one will take an extra gram of yarn. (But as it happens - I didn’t use 1g per yarn more per repeat, see actuals below):

8-row Repeat 20 - 10g - 125g remaining
8-row Repeat 21 - 12g - 113g remaining
8-row Repeat 22 - 11g - 102g remaining
8-row Repeat 23 - 10g - 92g remaining
8-row Repeat 24 - 11g - 81g remaining
8-row Repeat 25 - 13g - 68g remaining

(1 extra) 8-row repeat! - 12g = 56g remaining

It’s strange that I used either 10, 11, 12 or 13g per repeat but that the yarn usage hasn’t increased consistently, as would be expected given that the shawl is getting wider with each repeat.

Let’s assume that the final 22 rows plus bind off are equivalent to 3, 8 row repeats (aka 24 rows) which would use 1g more yarn each 8 rows, as per the estimation above: that would be approx 14g + 15g + 16g (total 45 g). I have 56g remaining. So I should be able to do the complete shawl as instructed, plus one extra repeat of 8-row chart C1, with quite a bit less yarn than is called for.

Chart D1 x 1 and Chart E 6-row repeat x 1 - 11g - 45g remaining
6-row repeat 2 - 6g - 39g remaining
6-row repeat 3 - 9g - 30g remaining

3-row repeat (rows 1-3 of Chart E plus bind off - 8g - 22g remaining

Pre-blocked dimensions: 27” (ribbed bind off edge) x 45” (length from cast on point to bind off point). I find the stretchy bind off unnecessary (and a bit wavy). I’ll block it but I might need to rip back the bind off and redo it… (Note - I’m a relaxed knitter and I don’t bind off tightly. I should have gone down a needle size but instead I just did the BO tightly - though I was doing a stretchy one?! I suspect doing a regular old bind off would have done the trick well…

Once soaked for 8 hours (by accident, I got side tracked)

42.5” (ribbed bind off edge) x 52” (length from cast on point to bind off point). I’m not going to pin or wire till it starts to contract as it dries. Right now, it’s completely even and flat, drying on the grid mat. No need to pin or wire as of now.

Final Thoughts:

• I had much less yarn than called for and I still had more than enough to knit the shawl as per the instructions (no shortening required). I don’t know how that’s possible given that, though I’m not a tight knitter by any stretch, I used the same needles size as called for and my yarn was DK (though in truth, it’s more worsted than DK).
• Worsted-weight yarn (or DK, as this yarn is technically called DK, though it’s not) is not for me when it comes to shawls. A 243g shawl is unnecessarily heavy and it will likely contribute to neck arthritis pain. So this will be a gift.
• The end result is beautiful and the shawl is very clearly instructed in the pattern. I still found the lace-work difficult to get into but I’m one of those people who either gets a lace chart quickly and easily, or rips back frequently to correct. I wouldn’t recommend this as a newbie lace pattern though the charting plus written instructions makes it useful from that vantage point.
• I’ve still got a brown streak in the yarn, though I alternated like a fiend. I will NOT be working with variegated yarn again for a long time and, when I do, I will want to see it in the skein IRL before I do.