Every time I picked up my knitting, the cast on edge bugged me. It was a little too tight, and it was curling badly. I didn’t know if it was going to block out, and that made me hesitant to continue.
So I ripped it out. And while I was ripping it out, I started thinking…of course I did. I liked the fabric I was getting with the US 6 needles. I knew about how many stitches I needed for a cowl. And wouldn’t it be nice if it had fewer patterning rounds, and more plain knit since it’s so hard to see the dark stitches?
I cast on loosely, and then knit two garter ridges (4 rounds) before beginning the Old Shale lace patterning. I wanted a substantial edge that wouldn’t curl. I also wanted to put the first lace patterning row further away from the edge, hoping that would also help prevent the curl.
The Bubble Net pattern had patterning on Rounds 1 and 3, and plain knitting on rounds 2 and 4. I’m working Old Shale (with no garter ridges), which has easily memorized patterning on Round 1, then 3 plain rounds. Less paying attention, perfect. I’m very happy with the new start.
I guess I’m designing my own cowl after all.
I’m knitting on Knit Picks Rainbow Options (birch) interchangeable needles. I picked these up at their Knit in Public Day in June. They have just enough grip with this skinny yarn.
Oh, I want to give a shout out to this ebook, Old Shale Variations edited by Mary Spanos from the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild. It’s a free download on Ravelry, and chronicles the guild’s group project of varying ways to knit Old Shale lace: wider, narrower, garter, stockinette, etc. Very fun to see how you can change the appearance.
I chose to use stockinette (no purling, in the round), and a short number of rounds. Fewer rounds means more complete repeats before heading into an ending garter stitch edge and bind off. (Example: If you only have enough yarn for 10 rounds, you can knit two 4 round repeats, or *zero* 12 round repeats which would waste a lot of this precious yarn. Shorter is better.)
Do you listen to that little voice that tells you to DO OVER? Sometimes I wait a lot longer, and the ripping is brutal! Glad I listened early.
PDXKnitterati 