21-03-2018

This is my challenge project - going to steek for the first time!
So far so good, colour work is coming along faster than I’ve expected. Yarn is nice, probably the most “wooly” one from Plucky))) Hubster is happy with colours!

29-03-2018

I did it! I cut that steek! And it worked!!! Woo-hoo!
Did the crochet method, 3 sts away from the middle. Will sew it to the body after all borders are done.

01-04-2018

Ta-da! All finished and blocking now.
Really nice shawl/scarf, DH already loves it and I can see him wearing it a lot.

And now a little less exclamation marks and a bit more useful (hopefully) info.

• A little confession first: I didn’t swatch (didn’t have enough yarn to spare for that “knit-in-the-round-and-then-cut-it” thing). But it’s a really good idea to do so. You can see my gauge ended up being 24 sts and rows vs 26 in pattern. I tend to knit looser when doing stranded colourwork and have to go down a needle size to get the gauge (as opposed to usual situation in most patterns when it’s suggested to go up a needle size assuming knitting gets tighter with stranded colourwork).

• Try to knit steek sts along hypotenuse a bit looser so it’s easier to block. I had to block the heck out of it as mine were rather tight.

• If you knit that swatch try the garter edge on it as well to make sure your needle size works and edge lies flat. Unless you want that rippling ruche. I normally have to go down 0.5 mm to have garter st gauge match my stockinette. So I used 3.5 mm needles for the edge (vs 3.75 mm in the pattern) and it worked well.

• Elastic bind off for garter st: bo 2 sts as usual, (k1, return 2 sts to the left needle, k2tog), repeat what’s in brackets to the end.

• Take your time to tidy up the gusset area. I ended up undoing corners of the steek to have a diagonal line of live sts which I sewn with overlap (5th photo from the bottom). Not particularly happy with the result, but it will stay this way.

• Folded cut steeks along the securing crochet lines so all those yarn ends are inside and sewn with matching sewing thread, this seam is pretty much invisible.

This shawl needs a fare bit of work after you’re done knitting, but don’t let all that finishing scare you, it’s really worth it!