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November 3, 2004
By the Book
The last time I was at Knitsmiths, I was knitting away on Melody's Shawl. Everybody was fascinated by the pattern, and at least a little horrified by the idea that upon completion of the knitting that the final step was to cut the shawl in half. I said that I'd be sure to do the cutting at the next Knitsmiths so that we could all share in the anxiety. Of course, I missed the next Knitsmiths and then couldn't wait to cut once I finished the knitting. So, for the benefit of those who also felt a little nauseated at the idea of taking scissors to knitting, here's how it went. (Text in italics are excerpts from the instructions.)
Shawl is knit in the round. After reaching desired width, bind off all but 16 stitches.
Drop remaining stitches from needle.
Unravel stitches between bind-off.
Cut straight through the middle of unraveled stitches.
Open shawl. Wash shawl in warm water... [Right. As if I'd do the finishing before I took the pictures.]
All wrapped up!
P.S. Process pictures were taken during a late-night knitting session with two of my closest buddies. Dig the PJ bottoms? The stars glow in the dark. Jealous, aren't you?
Posted by shannon at November 3, 2004 10:03 PM | For related posts: Melody's Shawl
Comments
Wow, it looks great! I have got to try making that.
I love the pj's too. Do the glow in the dark stars freak you out at night? I always get freaked out when I've forgotten that a few of the boys' pj's have glow in the dark designs and I sneak into the room late at night to check on them and they're glowing! ;0)
Posted by: alison at November 4, 2004 11:06 AM
Do the glow in the dark stars freak you out at night? I always get freaked out when I've forgotten that a few of the boys' pj's have glow in the dark designs and I sneak into the room late at night to check on them and they're glowing!
They don't usually freak me out, but then again by the time they're glowing, they're usually under the covers! (On a few occasions I've seen them, it's been more like 'what the..?!' than 'ahhhh!'.)
Posted by: Shannon ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://gringa.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 4, 2004 1:18 PM
Excellent. I love that shawl. Is it just knit in the round in st st or is there a stitch pattern? I didn't get to see it when you were at Knitsmiths. Either way the construction is brilliant with the built in fringe!
Posted by: Johanna at November 4, 2004 1:46 PM
The shawl is beautiful, but the thought of cutting it does make me physically ill. All that work... all those sts....
*swoons slightly*
So... the sts that are bound off don't unravel even though the sts next to them have been mutilated? Magic! Or does one need to knot the fringe up at the top to keep more unravelling from happening? Please tell!
Posted by: Zabet at November 5, 2004 11:28 AM
So... the sts that are bound off don't unravel even though the sts next to them have been mutilated? Magic! Or does one need to knot the fringe up at the top to keep more unravelling from happening? Please tell!
It's very clever -- the last stitches are knit into the BACK of the stitch, which "locks" them. When you drop the 16 stitches between the locked stitches, the unravelling stops at the appropriate place and will not go any further. Even if you pull. Which I did!
Posted by: Shannon at November 8, 2004 10:46 AM
Wow! That's a pretty cool way to do fringe on a shawl. Very clever indeed!
Posted by: La at November 16, 2004 6:44 PM