The Lace Mess Shawl
What a mess!
What is a lace mess shawl? Well, it was inspired once again by my inability to find entry-level lace shawls when I was a beginner knitter. There are lots of "beginner" shawls, but most of them have repeating lace, which means you have to get every row perfect or nothing will line up, and if you mess up it will crush your soul. Well, this shawl is especially designed to already BE a lace mess. So you're just fine if you forget a Yo, or can't remember if you need to do a K2tog. In fact, this shawl is more of a lace mess recipe. There is no exact chart, just a set of guidelines to make that yarn over mess!
Yarn: I used two hanks of Baby Alpaca Sport (or 2oo meters of bulky-weight yarn) Needles: 8mm circular needles
Notions:
Note on yarn choice:
You can use any weight yarn you'd like, just follow (approximately) the needle size that the yarn calls for. You will need more yardage for a smaller weight yarn. (Let's say around 400 meters for sock weight, 3o0 for worsted, etc...)
Legend:
yo = yarn over k = knit p = purl RS = Right Side WS = Wrong Side pm = place marker sm = slip marker (from left needle onto right needle)
Gauge:
Gauge doesn't matter much for this shawl project, so I'm not even going to include what my gauge is. So there.
The Pattern: Cast on 10 stitches. Row 1: k2, pm, k2, pm, k2, pm, k2 pm, k2 Row 2: k2, sm, purl to last marker, sm, k2 The k2 at the beginning and end of each row is to establish a garter ridge border Row 3 (RS): k2, sm, YO, k2, yO, sm, k2, sm, yo, k2, yo, sm, k2 The yarn overs are increasing the amount of stitches so we'll call row three (and all rows with yarn overs in them) an increase row. Row 4 (wS): k2, purl to last marker, (slipping all the markers as you come to them), k2 You will be repeating rows 3 and 4 throughout the whole pattern to create the triangle shawl shape.
How to make the holes:
The decorative holes you see in this shawl are made by doing Yarn overs.
To make a hole: yo,k2tog
All your increases should be done on the spine and sides (like row 3) so when you do a hole you need to make sure that you balance it by knitting two together. So it doesn't add a stitch to your next row. Only make the holes on the Right Side (RS) rows. I started off only making the holes once every few rows randomly; then getting more into it as I went along. Towards the end I was knitting yo,k2tog, yo, k2tog for all the RS rows (while still maintaining the yarn-over spine and border) to create that mesh-like affect.
Finishing up the shawl.
When I knit this shawl I decided to knit a few rows of garter stitch before I did the picot bind off. So if you feel so inclined, knit six or so rows of garter stitch, bysoftsweater still doing the yarn over border and spine as established. pg.3
The mysterious construction of a triangle shawl.
You would think, casting on your measly 10 stitches, that you would be starting with one of the three points of a triangle shawl, but you are actually casting on in the middle of the top, or flat, part of the shawl.
The Picot Bind Qff
Cast off four stitches in regular fashion. \*Slip the stitch that's on your right needle onto your left needle use the knitted cast on to cast on two stitches Cast off six stitches \* repeat from \* to \* until all stitches are cast off.
How to do a knitted cast on: After you cast off your four stitches slip the stitch you have on your right-hand needle onto left-hand needle. Put your right-hand needle through the stitch you've just put back onto the left-hand needle. Start to knit the stich, pull the yarn through the stitch, but don't drop the stitch off the left hand needle just keep that lon of varn that vou nulled throuah the s+itch on vour riaht-hand needle. Twist the loop and put it on the left-hand needle. If you've done this correctly you'll have a new stitch created on your left-hand needle. To cast on more stitches in this way place the stitch you have on your right-hand needle back on to your left hand needle and repeat the whole process again!
Blocking:
Blocking is incredibly important with all shawls. When you cast off your shawl it will be a tiny little pitiful scrunched-up ball of knitting. It will only blossom into something worth wearing if you pin the every-living hell out of it. Soak the shawl, you can use a wool soak like Eucalan or not. Make sure not to agitate it too much as it might felt. Squeeze it out gently. you can use a towel to press the water out too, to help it dry quicker. Lie it out on a bed or a blocking board or a bunch of cardboard and stick pins in every picot edge and all along the top/flat part of the shawl. Block heavily, pull it tight. Lie it over night to dry. Only unpin it when it is truly dry.
You're done!
If you have any questions or if you notice anything funky about the pattern please send me a message on ravelry!
