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janestarzSome of my friends asked me why I still called each section of this shawl a "clue", when the Mystery KAL is in the distant past and everyone already knows exactly what the Rockefeller will look like.
I guess I just like the word "Clue". Look Sherlock, a clue! Mostly because I know what the finished section should look like, but I haven't a clue how to knit it until I read the pattern.
In the coming weeks, the new MKAL (Mystery Knit-a-long) of Stephen West will be published. And despite enjoying the Rockefeller and being in awe of some of his designs, he also has some patterns that I find completely ghastly. As fun as a KAL is, people chatting and having a great time together, I'd rather pick my designs and yarn and make something I really enjoy. That's not guarantueed in an MKAL -- it might not be "your thing" after all.
So onto clue 3! I had made a test piece to figure out what I was reading in the pattern exactly. For some reason I had some trouble picturing what it would look like. And also, I wanted to make some adjustments. Originally there would be a big white stripe as a marker between clue 2 and clue 3, and the first rows of clue 3 would be a dark blue stripe.
But I wanted to separate the blues, because I'm using two hues of blue, by a white vertical line. So the first horizontal blue stripe needed to be changed.
Working with so many loose ends was challenging too. I paused halfway through clue 3 to untangle all the skeins. Luckily, this was the only point that it was really needful to do, up until then I could just pull the yarn through the tangle as I used it. All in all, this went far better than expected and quite quickly!
Bordered in white, two colours of blue and an irregular pattern at the bottom. Very pleased with how it turned out!
On a side note, I think I've figured out why they're called Egyptian squares (Ravelry link, you need to be logged in to see it.)
Now onto clue 4: the wings. I had to pick up stitches on either side of the neck, on the straight edge. The right-hand side first, as there are three live stitches from the i-cord bindoff still on the needle there, and some stitches from clue 1 parked on some scrap yarn.
The next bit was also a bit of a headache to figure out. Almost like when you start to fiddle with a pattern, you can't stop. The rest of the people in the KAL had similar ideas. Some switched clue 3 and clue 4 around, making the border with squares reach into the wings to tie them together some more. Others used techniques like in clue 1 to have a wider trim of white in the inside of the wings, so the wings flow seamlessly into the center-back. Like Snorrepot's Rockefeller, which has both these things.
I was determined to include the white border in my wings, since it's a high-contrast shawl and everything is now bordered in white. (The first stripe of the wings will also be in white, bordering off clue 2 nicely.) The original pattern just has stripes down to the wingtips, which decreases to a point. But I wanted white borders along either side, just like in the rest of the shawl, and I wanted to incorporate my second colour of blue as well.
The tricky part was to figure out how to stripe. Would I stripe white-light blue-white-dark blue? Or white-dark blue-white-light blue? Or maybe even white-light blue - dark blue - light blue - white - dark blue - light blue - dark blue?
It took me a couple of days figuring out what to do, but I'm very happy to report I'm well underway in my first wingtip now. And it's taking FOREVER. A little more patience for the final chapter.
(Also: "Blue" is a really weird word if you type it ten times fast.)
I guess I just like the word "Clue". Look Sherlock, a clue! Mostly because I know what the finished section should look like, but I haven't a clue how to knit it until I read the pattern.
In the coming weeks, the new MKAL (Mystery Knit-a-long) of Stephen West will be published. And despite enjoying the Rockefeller and being in awe of some of his designs, he also has some patterns that I find completely ghastly. As fun as a KAL is, people chatting and having a great time together, I'd rather pick my designs and yarn and make something I really enjoy. That's not guarantueed in an MKAL -- it might not be "your thing" after all.
So onto clue 3! I had made a test piece to figure out what I was reading in the pattern exactly. For some reason I had some trouble picturing what it would look like. And also, I wanted to make some adjustments. Originally there would be a big white stripe as a marker between clue 2 and clue 3, and the first rows of clue 3 would be a dark blue stripe.
But I wanted to separate the blues, because I'm using two hues of blue, by a white vertical line. So the first horizontal blue stripe needed to be changed.
Working with so many loose ends was challenging too. I paused halfway through clue 3 to untangle all the skeins. Luckily, this was the only point that it was really needful to do, up until then I could just pull the yarn through the tangle as I used it. All in all, this went far better than expected and quite quickly!
Bordered in white, two colours of blue and an irregular pattern at the bottom. Very pleased with how it turned out!
On a side note, I think I've figured out why they're called Egyptian squares (Ravelry link, you need to be logged in to see it.)
Now onto clue 4: the wings. I had to pick up stitches on either side of the neck, on the straight edge. The right-hand side first, as there are three live stitches from the i-cord bindoff still on the needle there, and some stitches from clue 1 parked on some scrap yarn.
The next bit was also a bit of a headache to figure out. Almost like when you start to fiddle with a pattern, you can't stop. The rest of the people in the KAL had similar ideas. Some switched clue 3 and clue 4 around, making the border with squares reach into the wings to tie them together some more. Others used techniques like in clue 1 to have a wider trim of white in the inside of the wings, so the wings flow seamlessly into the center-back. Like Snorrepot's Rockefeller, which has both these things.
I was determined to include the white border in my wings, since it's a high-contrast shawl and everything is now bordered in white. (The first stripe of the wings will also be in white, bordering off clue 2 nicely.) The original pattern just has stripes down to the wingtips, which decreases to a point. But I wanted white borders along either side, just like in the rest of the shawl, and I wanted to incorporate my second colour of blue as well.
The tricky part was to figure out how to stripe. Would I stripe white-light blue-white-dark blue? Or white-dark blue-white-light blue? Or maybe even white-light blue - dark blue - light blue - white - dark blue - light blue - dark blue?
It took me a couple of days figuring out what to do, but I'm very happy to report I'm well underway in my first wingtip now. And it's taking FOREVER. A little more patience for the final chapter.
(Also: "Blue" is a really weird word if you type it ten times fast.)
