Friday, December 10, 2010

Virginia Shawl KAL

Not only has Sharon, the Yarnista herself been making my Virginia Shawl but......

The 3IG KAL Group over on Ravelry has been making some progress on their shawls as well.

I have been hearing a few concerns about some things and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to not only answer some questions, but to also show you the progress everyone has been making.

One of the questions were: What to do if you want to make the shawl bigger?

There are a few things. If your using what is called for in the pattern: Glenhaven fingering, then my suggestion would be to add more stripes/repeats in the pattern. This would however require more yarn naturally. I couldn't say how much as that depends on how big you plan on making it and where you plan on stopping.

This also leads to another question: If I make the shawl bigger, how do I make up the difference in math for the lace edging?

The lace edging is a 10+4 repeat. So let's say that you stop after you have 353 sts on your needles. Thats quite a bit bigger than the original. So you need to increase by one stitch to make it an even 354. You have now worked the first row of the set-up row for the lace edging, and can continue as the pattern suggests. The only difference is that you will work more repeats of the lace edge than you would have if you kept it the same as the original.

Also, my one test knitter has made the shawl in different yarn weights...that too is a thought for future Virginia Shawls.....

Another question was: It's a Us 7 needle?
Yes. It may seem quite big for fingering weight yarn, but it is in fact what you should be using to get gauge. I have heard people say that they have been getting loops. I'm not sure about this as I don't remember having bigger loops. However in the end it all works out as the extra space helps the shawl to stretch out quite largely. The shawl, because it is worked on bigger needles, ends up being nice and lightweight. I also seen someone post on the KAL thread that once stretched out, the loops go away and it seems fine. Everyone knits at different tensions so you have to keep that in mind too.

Another question that was asked to me today: Why does the kfb fall in different places at either end of the row? I would have thought they would be symmetrically placed, but they're offset by one stitch.

Good question! When I first tested out the Virginia Shawl, the kfb were evenly spaced on opposite sides. However, after I had knitted so much I went back to check my work. I noticed that I had a garter ridge edging on one side of the shawl, but not the other. If I remember correctly, I had seen this somewhere before. I'm not 100% on this, but a previous pattern by another designer had placed the stitches just so, and so I tried it, and it worked. My garter ridge edging was now on both sides. So that's how it came to be. Again I don't remember if I had seen it before or if it was something I just tried and it worked. It's been quite some time since the original shawl. Either way..there you have it :)

If you would like a more technical look at it, Andy, Aka: figarofigaro1 explains it like this (he's so smart):
The kfb makes a purl bump when you knit in the back part of the stitch. If you want those to appear symmetrical, you have to move the kfb stitch over one on the left-hand side. If you kfb the first and last stitch in the row (kfb, k, kfb) you end up with a row that looks like this:
purl bump, k, k, purl bump, k
If you kfb the first st and the next to last stitch (kfb, kfb, k) you get:
k, purl bump, k, purl bump, k

This is a great project if your looking for one of those mindless tv knits. If there are other questions you may have that I may not have answered, please feel free to ask them here, or on the Ravelry group.


Now, onto progress photos!

Matchstick has began his Virgina already and he is using Glenhaven cashmerino fingering in Canyon. Awesome stuff!!!

Rhonnie's Virginia Shawl
Colorway: Passionfruit...yumm!


quiltsbythecreeks' Virginia
Colorway: Rhubarb. Delic!!!
Colorway: Morgaine. I am loving the green!!!

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