Another project off the needles. The Which Way Shawl is done and here it is:

Here’s the pattern on Ravelry again.

Do I love this shawl? Mmmmm, I dunno. The design is interesting – I’d probably go down a needle size if I ever made it again, though it is nice and squishy. That contrast colour is a different choice for me – while it’s a good idea to try new things, I think I would have loved the result more if I’d gone with my original impulse of using a navy or black for the main colour. Maybe it will be just the right bright thing on a winter’s day. I do like the colours better at the ends than in the middle.

The shape of the shawl is unusual, but it makes a manageable cowl when wrapped around the neck. I expect I’ll wear it that way when I do wear it. I added tassels to the points that I’ll probably tie together.

Now to choose another project. It would be best to finish up something already started. There’s a little summer cardigan that would be a good choice to finish right now, and I love the colour of it. It’s a Martin Storey pattern called Peridot, which I’ve been knitting in Patons Silk Bamboo for half of forever. (Lots and lots of stockinette stitch.) That’s a Ravelry link, btw. Also my chunky No. 9 pullover in Blackstone Tweed still needs sleeves – funny that it’s almost the same shade of blue as the little cardigan. More blue on the needles with my Water shawl that needs finishing. That’s a blog post link. And of course, there’s my Wild Grass pullover which is at the point of needing acres of stockinette knit.

While considering all of these options, I cast on the purple version of the Quintessential cardigan. I’d bought two kits, one in green and one in purple, so will knit the second one with a few changes. It also requires miles of stockinette, but it’s purple and I need a purple cardigan. 🙂

I have been making progress on the Which Way shawl. I first told you about it in this post than updated you in this post. This is a whole lot of knitting.

Today’s milestone is that I’ve run out of yarn. Both bundles of gradient-dyed yarn are used up and the shawl isn’t done. This is likely because I’ve somehow mucked up the decreases. I want the lower edge to be decreased to nothing before binding off, as I think it might look odd otherwise. This requires a lot more repeats than specified in the pattern.

I have a persistent feeling that I’ve made a mistake, so took the shawl off the needles to have a look.

Here we are. It’s a dingy day and raining too hard to take the shawl outside for a pic. Also, it’s huge, and I couldn’t get it all in the shot.

It’s that bottom wedge that I’m diminishing until it vanishes. At this point, there are 18 stitches there so I’ll need another 9 contrast stripes to finish that out. The pooling is from the main colour, which is hand-dyed, but it seems to have worked out pretty evenly. I don’t mind it. And I don’t mind the size of the shawl. I’m just wondering where I went wrong…

You can just barely see the orange marker in the middle when the decreases were started. The shawl from this point should (I think) be rectangular, and it looks like it will block out that way. I pulled that right tip out longer when I was laying out the shawl.

The pattern specifies 22 contrast stripe repeats after the decreases begin (where the orange marker is). I’m currently at 43. Following the directions, the decreases would have stopped around the point that the contrast yarn (the gradient) started to get darker. (Eyeball a halfway point between the orange marker and the live stitches at the right.) I think the shawl would have been too small then, and an odd shape. There are some finished project pictures on Ravelry that are shaped the way my shawl is now, which does nothing to explain the 21 contrast stripe difference.

Here’s the pattern on Ravelry again. It calls for 4 oz of the main colour, a sport weight yarn, (that’s 113g) and 5 oz of the gradient skeins (let’s call it 150g), knit on US 6 needles (4.0mm). My yarn is fingering weight so I used 3.75mm needles. (I could actually have gone down another size as it’s a loose garter stitch, but it is nice and drapey this way.) I had 144g of the gradients, and 2 skeins of the main colour for 220g total (732m). I’m into the second skein of the main colour and I guess it was predictable that I’d run out of the contrast.

Fortunately, I have another skein of sock yarn in a mulberry shade that is pretty close to the gradient colourways – probably more like the fifth shade than the sixth (maybe even the fourth. You can see it on the right.) I’ll go with it anyway. The fiber content is the same.

I’ll keep knitting and will show you better pix once it’s completed. I still have no clue what I did wrong, but the end result looks okay, so it will be what it will be.