I have been working on a Shetland/Faroese shawl that I wanted to have finished by today. Sadly, that is not going to happen.
I was working away at the final few rows and realized that I had made a mistake six or seven rows back on the longest part of the knitting. Add to that, I am making the monster with a mohair blend yarn that is more than slightly fuzzy. I also realized that writing a new pattern at the same time as knitting it and watching TV is a surefire recipe for disaster!
Once I recovered from my little temper tantrum and picked the shawl back up, I toyed with the idea of just ripping back the few stitches in question and reknitting them. Simple, right? I was wrong, oh so wrong to assume that this would be an easy fix. I have done this before with cables and simple stitch patterns with great success but lace is a little more tricky than that. All I have done is created a huge mess that I will have to rip all of the work back to and now I don’t love this shawl anymore.
Long story short, there will no new lace shawl pattern this week. I do have photos of the work in progress so that you can see what to expect next week and also so that you can see my harebrained idea on how I should repair this oops the lazy way.
Just so that you don’t feel that I have let you down completely (although you didn’t know that the pattern was coming so I have not only not produced what I wanted to but now I have spoiled the surprise as well!) here is an alternative., my Textured Wrap pattern.
This wrap is knitted long ways and is a great way to use up those really lovely but single skeins of yarn that you (or at least I) buy just because they are too pretty to leave in the store but what the heck do you do with them now. It has enough changes in pattern, simple pattern stitches, really, to keep the work interesting but you can still multitask a bit. Pick out a palette of coordinating yarns and enjoy knitting this cozy wrap!
Textured Wrap
Size: 16 in x 76 in or 40 cm x 195cm
Gauge: 16 stitches x 24 rows = 4″ or 10cm, note: gauge is not critical for this piece but should be close to achieve the correct size.
Materials:10 50gr balls of worsted or dk weight yarn (90 to 140 yds or 80 to 125 m per ball, I used 2 black, 2 dark brown, 2 blue tweed, 1 variegated, 1 heather, 1 light rust tweed, 1 multicoloured mini pompom).
Tools: One US 9 or 5.5 mm circular needle. Shawl is knit back and forth but you will need a circular needle to hold all of the stitches and to allow you join yarn at opposite end of the work from the last colour worked.
Bobbles: Large bobbles are made in one stitch as follows:
In the same stitch k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, turn, p5, turn, k5, turn, p2tog, p1, p2tog, turn, k3tog.
Small bobbles are made as follows:
In the same stitch, k1, yo, k1, turn, p3, turn, k3tog.
With black yarn cast on 280 stitches and work 4 rows of garter stitch.
Change to mini pompom yarn and work 5 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to dark brown yarn on the wrong side and work 7 rows of stocking stitch.
Next row (right side): k11, make large bobble in 12th st, k11 repeat * to * to end.
Purl 1 row.
Change to blue tweed yarn and k5, make a large bobble, k11, repeat * to * to 6 st remaining, make a large bobble, k5.
Work 8 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to black yarn on the wrong side and k 1 row.
Change to variegated yarn and work 5 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to heather yarn on the wrong side and k 1 row.
Change to blue yarn on the wrong side and knit 1 row.
Change to heather yarn on the wrong side and k 1 row.
Change to blue yarn on the wrong side and knit 1 row.
Change to heather yarn on the wrong side and k 1 row
Work 2 rows of stocking stitch.
Work 6 rows of basket weave stitch in a 2 x 2 pattern:
Row 1: k2, p2
Row 2: p2, k2
Row 3: p2, k2
Row 4: k2, p2
Row 5: k2, p2
Row 6: p2, k2
Work 3 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to black on the wrong side and work 3 rows of reverse stocking stitch, (knit 1 row on wrong side, purl 1 row on right side and knit 1 row on wrong side).
Change to light brown tweed yarn on the wrong side and purl 1 row.
Next right side row, k4, make a small bobble, k9 repeat * to * to 5 stitches remaining, make a small bobble and k4.
Purl 1 row.
Change to black on the wrong side and work 3 rows of reverse stocking stitch as above.
Change to variegated yarn on the right side and work 3 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to dark brown yarn on the right side and work 4 rows of stocking stitch.
Next right side row, k8, slip crochet hook into last stitch on right hand needle and pull off, ch6, slip st into the back loop of the 2nd ch from hook, slip st into back loop of remaining 4 ch, slip loop on hook back onto right hand needle, k8, repeat * to * until 8 st remain, k8.
Work 3 row of stocking stitch.
Next right side row, k4, repeat * to * as above until 5 stitches remain, work crochet and k4.
Work 3 rows stocking stitch,
Change to mini pompom yarn and work 4 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to black yarn and work 2 rows of reverse stocking stitch.
Change to blue tweed yarn and work 4 rows of stocking stitch.
Next right side row, k9, make a large bobble, k19 repeat to * to * until 11 stitches remain, make a large bobble and k10.
Purl 1 row on wrong side.
Next right side row, k19, make a large bobble, k19 repeat * to * to end.
Work 4 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to heather yarn on the right side and work 2 rows of stocking stitch.
Change to black yarn and work 4 rows of garter stitch.
Cast off loosely.
Finish Ends: finish the short sides to match the border on the long sides. With blue tweed yarn on the right side and starting at the edge of the first colour after the black border, pick up and knit 52 stitches along the edge ending before the last black border. Knit 1 row back on wrong side.
With black yarn, pick up and knit 3 stitches on the edge of the black border, k52 blue stitches and pick up and knit 3 stitches on the black border.
Work 3 rows of garter stitch and cast off loosely.
Repeat this work at the opposite short side to finish the wrap.
Weave in all those pesky ends and block lightly. I pressed mine rather than stretching it to maintain the texture and weight.
Abbreviations:
Knitting: k = knit
p = purl
yo = yarn over
k2tog = knit 2 st together
p2tog = purl 2 st together
k3tog = knit 3 st together
Crochet: ch = chain
slip st = slip stitch