04-06-2017

This used a lot of yarn in the scheme of things:

Colour 1 - 366 yards / 99g
Colour 2 - 429 yards/ 116g MOST
Colour 3 - 307 yards / 83g This yarn was heavier than the Sweet Georgia mink and slate so I used less of it weight-wise proportionately…

08-06-2017

In the end, I think this is an ingenious design but not a well-explained pattern. I’ll make it again but I’ll also reconsider the width of colour blocks. (I didn’t need to make mine as large as instructed so I cut rows as I went. Next time I should have a plan of how many rows per section I’ll cut, if any.

Make sure that, even when it says “knit”, you purl the first stitch

Note to reader: If you hate weaving in ends or get bored by garter, this probably isn’t the shawl for you, but it knits up beautifully in fingering weight with a size 6 needle. And, despite the fact that this pattern is more complicated than it looks (there are a lot of steps), and it could have been described better (plus the technical drawings are weak), it’s still a worthwhile venture because once I refine the exterior edges by slipping the first stitch, This will be a really sharp looking scarf.

I get that in a KAL, one doesn’t want to give away too much visually. But the post-KAL version should have included more complete drawings.

Also - don’t stress about the numbers of stitches you need to pick up on each side. Just make sure both short ends have the same number (to preserve the width). It doesn’t even matter if you have an odd or even number but you must pick up very neatly so that the pick up sections are the same length or width as the prior sections onto which new stitches were picked up. Otherwise, the shawl will become unbalanced which does not look great. Spend your time on getting the correct number of stitches. The pattern’s technique on how to pick up stitches, if you don’t follow the suggested number of stitches, is sound.

Also don’t forget to bind off so that both sides look the same on either side (don’t knit bind off on the right side at one end of the scarf and on the wrong side of the other).