Tag Archives: undine

Another Undine

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I started this stripey shawl almost a year ago. It’s my own Undine pattern, but with a modification (and a correction). I blogged several times already about this one: Knitting for a Mermaid, Progress on the Mermaid Shawl, More Progress on the Mermaid Shawl, and The Mermaid Shawl Puzzle. It’s been a bit of a process, and I won’t review all my revelations and corrections again today.

It’s done!

variation of Undine by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

It’s knit of Crazy Zauberball, which is a self-striping sock yarn, and I started with two balls. I alternated two rows from each ball. I thought I did some clever calculations to finish the shawl with two balls, but there was an error in my calculations. I needed 2.7 balls to finish.

variation of Undine by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

I love how the stripes came out, and the ruffled edge. I’m not going to block this one – I don’t usually block shawls knit in garter stitch because I like the springiness of them – so once the ends are sewn in, it’s ready to wear!

My Ravelry project page for this one is right here.

What do you think?

The Mermaid Shawl Puzzle

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The Mermaid Shawl has had me puzzled. Last week, I figured out what was going on. Even though I’m using my own pattern, Undine, I didn’t follow the directions. In Undine, the ruffle is created with short rows at the outer edge of the shawl, and this ruffle remains the same width across the shawl. Any changes to the total width of the shawl are made in the body of it, right before the ruffle. (The increases are between the ruffle and the main part of the shawl.) This means that the rows in the body of the shawl are perpendicular to the lead edge, like this:Undine by Deborah Cooke knit in Noro Kureyon Sock by Deborah CookeWhen I began to knit the Mermaid Shawl, though, I didn’t read my own directions! I made my increases at the lead edge (i.e. the beginning of the right side row). This skewed the knit rows. Because of the location of the increase stitch, the rows fall at an angle to the lead edge, like this:Undine shawl by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball by Deborah CookeThe gussets that make the ruffles don’t appear to be in a separate band either. They just flow from the main shawl – in a way that would definitely please a mermaid.

This is pretty interesting. I had no idea this would happen. I would have expected my mistake to make very little difference. I was wrong about that!

If I had just continued, following the rest of the directions for Undine, the stripes would have been at an angle for the entire shawl. But, I had decided to make an inverted V in the back, again with short rows, to emulate the shawl in the Jane Eyre movie. The finished V looks like this:Undine shawl by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball by Deborah Cooke

My revised plan had been for the inverted V to be the middle of the shawl, BUT the knitting still doesn’t line up. In fact, it’s only this new part that is perpendicular to the lead edge, and that means that the picture above is actually the midpoint of the shawl.

I need to knit another inverted V of short rows before decreasing to the end of the shawl to make the shape come out right. The finished shawl will have three triangles. This means that I’ll run out of yarn – I’m half done, but have only 30% of my yarn left. I’m going to have to buy a third ball to finish. I do like it, though, and it will bug me if I don’t finish it so that the rows are straight.

What do you think?

More Progress on the Mermaid Shawl

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I’ve been knitting and thought it time to show you my progress on that stripey shawl.Undine shawl by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball by Deborah CookeI’m just past the midpoint. I made a variation to the pattern on a whim. I decided to do some short rows in the middle, so there will be an inverted V down the centre back. This will make the shawl narrower but will also give it a slightly different shape. I worked two stitches less for every second row from about the lime stripey bit until I got down to just a few more stitches than the godets require. (There are more details on my Ravelry project page.)

Look at the ruffled edge at the top and you can see the green godet which is the middle point of the shawl. (It’s the top green godet.) From that point, I’ve been adding back two stitches every second row and will continue until I’m working all of the stitches again. Once there, I’ll carry on with the decreases in the pattern to finish the shawl.

I’ll show you another picture of the turns once I’ve made more progress and you can see the inverted V more clearly. I’m quite happy with this one. What do you think?

Progress on the Mermaid Shawl

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I thought I’d show you my progress on my Undine striped shawl today. I really like what the self-striping yarn is doing:Undine shawl by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball by Deborah CookeYou can also see how the hem is beginning to flutter. If I held that top edge (the one on the right) straight, it would ripple even more.

I’ll start to decrease the width of the shawl once I’ve used half of the yarn. The easiest way to determine that point is to weigh the balls of yarn. (I use the kitchen scale.) They were each 100g when I started. Now they’re both around 75g. When they get to 52 g or so, I’ll start to decrease. I want to make sure the shawl is symmetrical, so might do something different at the midpoint. We’ll see when I get there.

In the meantime, what do you think?

Knitting for a Mermaid

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Because I’m having an administrivia week, I needed something to knit in garter stitch. I decided to use one of my own patterns, but make it stripey. The colours in this yarn are shades of blue and green, so that makes it fit for a mermaid. 🙂

The pattern is for a shawl with a ruffled edge and is called Undine. That’s the Ravelry link to the pattern (which is free download) but I also blogged about my first one here. That one was knit in a self-striping yarn – Noro Kureyon Sock – and I mirrored the striping pattern. I’ll add the picture here so you don’t have to click through:Undine by Deborah Cooke knit in Noro Kureyon Sock by Deborah CookeFor this new one, I wanted stripes. I had two balls of Crazy Zauberball sock yarn, which is a self-striping yarn, in the colourway 2136. Originally, I planned to knit knee socks with this yarn, but I wasn’t happy with the way they were coming out. Plus, I’m more likely to wear a green shawl than green knee socks.

I found a mistake in my own shawl pattern in the set up! Yikes! So, I’ll have to fix the PDF, but here’s a detail shot of the set up tip of the shawl. Although I’m using two balls of yarn for this project, I did this part with only one.Undine shawl by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball by Deborah CookeI joined the second ball after this, and began alternating between the balls, working two rows from each. Here’s a progress shot:
Undine shawl by Deborah Cooke knit in Crazy Zauberball by Deborah CookeWith the change in colours, you can see the godets more clearly in this version. At this point, I’ve worked seven godets, which make the hem of the shawl ripple when worn.

I’m having fun with this one. It’s not quite a mindless knit, which will keep me interested, as will the self-striping yarn. I also like how the striping is periodically disappearing when the colours from the two balls are similar. This could be avoided by using a solid yarn as one colour or a completely contrasting colourway, but I like when things slide in and out of focus. My Rav project page is here, if you want more detail.

What do you think?