This is my second Dreambird. First one is here with notes about page 16.

Used cable cast-on with US7 needle.

Added 10 sts to length near top of quill. Decided not to lengthen the feather itself because it looked more balanced to increase the quill, plus that would use less of the colored yarn so I could have more feathers.

I changed the design to move the quill rows to the middle of the feather for two reasons:

• There would be more of a color difference between the two halves of the feather.
• The quill itself would be a single color.

But also:

• The line down the center of the feather becomes a nice, smooth line.
• If you lose track of your row, it’s much easier to “guess” and have it turn out fine.
• If you have nearly enough yarn for one last feather, it’s easier to make the last one a little thinner.

This had some drawbacks. Each feather has two ends that need to be woven in (carrying the yarn would show). Because of the direction you’re knitting, some rows had to be purled for the color to show correctly on the right side. And from the front, the quill itself is knit stitches (receding) instead of purl.

To modify the design, I re-created the chart from page 6 in a spreadsheet using different colors for feather, background, and purl stitches.

The colored yard had a splice that didn’t match, so I had to make that feather narrower and take out a section of yarn. It also had one spot where it went straight from one color to the next without blending, so there’s also a discontinuity there (and thinner feathers). The last few feathers are all thinner because I was trying to make one more feather and use every bit of my yarn.

From the top edge to the tip of the feather (following along the quill) is about 23 inches unblocked. Measured straight down from the neck to the bottom looks like 16-17 inches unblocked. The neckline is about 28 inches long.

Since the quill was all knit stitches, it wanted to curl the two edges. To make the final edge next to the quill a bit wider, I cast off the feather to three stitches before the feather ended and quill started. Then I knit to 8 stitches from the top, then knit back toward the tip except for the last two stitches. Turned around, passed first stitch over second, then knit third stitch to start castoff toward the top. I didn’t cast off the last 5 stitches, to join them to the “top” stitches saved on the cable.

I-cord bind off for top edge: K2, slip 1, k1, psso. This takes forever, since you’re doing eight things to cast off a single stitch, but it makes a really nice (non-stretch) edge.

Then I picked up stitches on the opposite edge from just below the top of the feather to the top i-cord edge (right side), knit back down, and cast off - to add more of the background color next to that quill as well, to help with curling.