Wendy Knits

It is time for Part Four of the Shetland Pi Shawl! Get your copy here (pdf format).

ETA: I uploaded a revised pattern as of 3:30pm on Sunday — there was an error in the written out instructions. The chart was correct. This is why I prefer writing patterns with charts only!

This is a really, really big helping of Pi: on the first round you increase to 576 stitches, and then work 51 rounds (48 of them in the lace pattern).

If you think you may run out of yarn, you can do 1 or 2 fewer repeats in this section. Each pattern repeat is 8 rounds.

There is a funky little maneuver in this pattern: in Round 5 you decrease 2 stitches in each of the 9-stitch pattern repeats, so you number of stitches changes in that round. But on Round 6 of each repeat you increase 2 stitches by knitting in the front and back of the 2 yarn-overs you worked in Round 5, so you will go back to the “normal” stitch count then.

Several of you have asked me why I am calling this a “Shetland” shawl. It is because most of the stitch patterns I am using are either traditional Shetland lace or based on traditional Shetland lace. I say “based on” because I didn’t look any of these up in a stitch dictionary before charting them. I just did it out of my head, depending on my memory. So some of them might be slightly different from a traditional Shetland stitch pattern.

And a couple of you have expressed concern that you might not be keeping up with the group with your knitting. Worry not — there is no time limit on this KAL, you can start it any time and finish it any time you like. As it happens, I have finished my pi apart from the bind-off, but of course I’ve had access to all the parts before you did. I wanted to be a little ahead so I could troubleshoot any problems.

Thanks for all your good wishes on the completion of my manuscript. I’ll talk again about this project when it is a bit further along in the process of turning it into a book. At this time I do not have a publication date but based on past experience, I’d say about a year from now.

And I did celebrate in the right order — I purchased these shoes before I had a margarita.

These are Mephisto shoes, the style is called “Raika.” I love Mephisto shoes — they are one of a very few brands that don’t hurt my feet. I got them from Zappos.com, my favorite shoe source.

Several of you thought I needed a new purse, but I just got one at the beginning of the month.

Lucy sez:

“What the heck are you watching?”

As I think I mentioned, I am a bit ahead of you all in the Shetland Pi KAL — I just started Part five last night.

Part five is the edging pattern and it can be easily modifed to add or subtract rounds depending on how your yarn is holding out. But as written, there are 20 rounds of lace. At the point I started Part five, I was well into my third skein of Madelinetosh Merino Light — like three-quarters the way through the skein. I will be dipping into my fourth skein.

This yarn has 440 yards per skein, so 1320 yards in three skeins. I estimated 1400 yards for the fingering weight version of the pi so I am right on track here.

If you have less than 1400 yards of fingering weight yarn, don’t worry.  You can do one less repeat of Part Four, and fewer rounds in Part five and you’ll be just fine and the shawl will be plenty big.

Joining Yarn

Linda M. commented:

I was wondering how you are going to join your yarn.  I am using the same yarn and am not sure what to do since it is single ply and superwash.

What I do — and did for this yarn — is to hold both the old and new yarn together for a few stitches and knit them with both yarns. It works great and is not noticeable after you knit those double-yarn stitches. And you don’t have to worry about your join coming undone.

Lucy is resting up for another attack on her fuzzy rat.

There were some good questions in yesterdays comments, so let’s address some of them here.

Debbie asked:

My question now is how do you decide when to move it to the circular needles?

This depends on the weight of the yarn you are using, needle size, and what length circular needle you are using. That’s helpful, isn’t it?

I moved my pi to a 16″ circular when I had 144 stitches, and to a 32″ circular when I had 288 stitches.

Hannah asked:

I hate to ask this, but I must. What do you do when you discover you have made a mistake or two? For example, I discovered a couple of times that I was short a stitch (probably a YO). I also discovered a couple of times that I had one stitch too many. When I got to the even rounds (all knits), I simply corrected the number of stitches I was supposed to have. Is this OK? Or are you supposed to unknit and reknit? I am wondering if you just make the correction by adding or subtracting a stitch here or there that the pattern may not look right when you are done with the entire project. I hope you tell me to just keep going and not worry!

Keep going and don’t worry!

I think they way you dealt with your anomalies is a good way. Now, if you had a huge honking glaring error that jumped out at you, screaming, you might want to frog.

Barbara commented a little later:

I, like Hannah, have had a character mark or 2 and did not frog to correct since it was merely a stitch or 2 but did run into a boo-boo that was not easily fixable as I began part row 3 of the lace/part 2 so was a big girl and frogged to the start.

Yep, that’s the way to go.

And Pattie said:

Twice on row 7 of chart B I forgot a YO, didn’t find it until row 9 when I didn’t have enough sts. I dropped the sts down and knitted back up just the sections where I flubbed. I used a smaller needle and now I can’t see where the problems were.

I normally count on the plain row to be sure I have the right #-much easier to pick up the YO on the subsequent row than to do it 2-3 rows later.

For part 3 I’m using markers every 18 sts so they don’t drive me nuts!

Counting on the plain rows will keep you sane. and it’s easy to do if you are using stitch markers. Like Pattie, I am using stitch markers every 18 stitches and it is no problem to count along as I knit the plain rounds.

Jeremy said:

Usually when a stitch count is off the problem is a missed yarn over. When I come to that spot on the next round I pick up the yarn right below where the yo is supposed to be and knit it. There is a slight variation in size but not that noticeable and a lot better than frogging all the way back to the mistake.

I do this too. I do miss doing a yarn over from time to time, and it is very easy to just lift it up on the next round.

Dorothy asked:

With stitches growing in numbers and trying to keep it all straight My eyes want to give out. Where in the design is a good place to stop when you need to take a break?

I think you can take a break on any plain round. Make sure you know exactly which round you are on before putting it down.

Mary said:

I have read that superwash does not hold its shape after being blocked but bounces back to whatever it was beforehand and so is not a good choice for lace. Madeline Tosh Light is a superwash, so I am assuming that may not be true when choosing yarn for a shawl.

This is not my experience. I’ve made many shawls from superwash wool and they have all kept their shape beautifully after blocking. My swatch that I knit from the Madelinetosh Light Fingering has not changed at all in the almost two weeks since I blocked it.

Lucy is still keeping an eye on her fuzzy rat.