Mastering Triangular Shawl Knitting: A Personal Journey with Red Ruffles and Custom Pattern Development

RED RUFFLES

I was glad that finally I figured out how to make a triangular shawl. After knitting couple of Annis'es it hit me that I could do one shawl of my own. Knitting from bottom-up suited me well and using short rows was the key.

The reason why I started that crazy knitting is that I got new fancy full set of needles as an early birthday gift from my husb (or you can read it as: I bought myself an expensive set of KnitPro interchangeable needles and called them as my gift) and felt that there's a lot of unused knitting power inside of me.. lol. So I put together almost a ,pattern". I'll ask for softer punishment as it's my first pattern and some details may not be written in. You're welcome to use creative approach to it. @ Yarn used: Novita Virkkauslanka, 1,5 skeins 100% cotton 100g = 550m (suggestion - needles n 2,0 - 2,5) Using rougher yarn can make this pattern more eatable :), but i can't promise that ruffles will fall as nicely. Needles: co with n 3,5; knitting 3,0. (I mention here also that I tend to knit strongly) I used KnitPro at least 80cm circulars. It's a minimum, the sts-s will sit there very tightly; so longer needles will make the process less nervwracking. Casting on will surely take some time, but no need to switch off phones etc. I kept track counting the stitches by adding a scrap yarn every 1o0 sts (or 50, if you like). So its not so painful. And I rather CO than BO, because while starting a project I have the power to knit (or even worse - purl back) those long rows - after these are done, about half of the project is done .

Let's cast on! I noticed that there is a messy thing going on with the number of CO sts-s. I have to apologise a lot, but there was definetly a mistake because the sts-s mismatched. As I started this red shawl without any pattern and didn't now excactly where does it carrie me, i miscalculated and 3 sts left over when making the cable-part. So I corrected the pattern with "+3". And yes, after first corretion the sts-s still mismatched. I took the pattern out again (for making another, but with less sts-s) and made some math what showed that CO should be any multiple of 18. So in this case 1512 (or 1530) would be the correct number. It took 2 hours (or a bit more) to CO. And about an hour for every row in ruffle-part. I put here link from youtube on how to make a knitted cast on as I used this kind of CO. 1-st row. Knitted 1-1 ribbing, to prevent scrolling. Then continued with stockinette. Knitted these loo-oong rows until the sufficient width. After ruffle width is suitable for you, it's time to start decreasing. Made S2KP, s0 after approx. 10th row 504 (510) sts left. S2KP - insert needle into 2nd and 1st stitches at once as if to knit 2tog and slip both stitches from this position; knit next stitch, then pass the 2 slipped stitches together over theknit stitch. Knitted again stockinette, 2 rows. To be sure that the ruffles stay fluffy, I made entire row of 3-3 cables. It means 84 (or 85) cables. Purled back. Made short rows formula (504+10):2=257 or (510+10):2=260 You may have different number of sts-s on needles, but that's where the numbers come from: 504(510) - as sts left on needles 10 - as sts-s in center part 2 - as two sides of the shawl 257 (260) - as sts-s need to knit on 1-st row on short rows. Started short rows, recalled detailed instructions from Annis Shawlette. In this project I used 1purl-1knit ribbing, making sure the knitted loops will appear right on the turning points. The bind off row is made with crochet hook, raising stitches over each other starting from the edge without yarn. Almost done! Now wash your beauty and leave it to dry. You can gently pat and adjust the ruffles. When dry, wrap yourself in and go in front of a mirror to admire yourself Great job! I can't tell how much I started to love lacy cotton shawls! And this one sits very comfortably on shoulders, don't you agree?

As it's obvious that I can't knit in every colours and yarn types to see how they'll turn out. I'm very ancious to see your projects :) Happy knitting! And great thanks for ruffling with me!