Progress!

[tephra]

Over the past couple weeks I have been working exclusively on my shawl and have finished the main section of the pattern.



Now, since I'm not that fond of the edge of the shawl in the original pattern (photo here) , I'm working on charting out an edging that I like better. I'm taking elements from the first three motifs of the pattern, seen in these photos:

Motif 1 (the reason I wanted to knit the shawl in the first place)


Motif 2


Motif 3


The third motif should flow seamlessly into the edging seen on this shawl.

The problem is the transition from where I stopped knitting into that first motif. I have a 28 stitch pattern repeat (plus one dividing stitch, so 29 possible stitches if I incorporate that one) to work the motif into. Once I have that figured out, which may take a while, I'll have to work out how to fit whatever I have come up with into the increasing sections at the edges and center of the shawl.

I've called it a night on my first attempt. I started out with the three fingered droopy blossom sort of thing coming from between the columns of leaves with a centered leaf to finish off the columns. Right now I have far too many stitches in my pattern repeat so I need to fiddle with it. Assuming I can get that worked out the next problem is transitioning to the hex net and then into the diamond chevron. I had hoped to somehow make a chart would just line up with the chart for the second motif but I'm having my doubts right now.

Comments

[susan402.livejournal.com]

That's so pretty!
Knitters are always talking about shawls, and I never see anyone wearing them. I'd like to though. I guess I'd wear one around the house sometimes, at least, if I could finish mine...

[tephra]

Thank you. :)

This is my first shawl, which will test whether I will wear shawls I guess. I love the look of knitted lace and the pieces that show it off the most tend to be shawls, probably because making a multi-size sweater pattern with all over lace motifs would be a bit of a nightmare. :D

[kyrenea.livejournal.com]

That is pretty. Is it a bright red or the rusty red my monitor is showing me? The color is see is nice, but that floral/leaf pattern would be stunning in a bright red.

I gave up years ago crochetting anything beyond a baby blanket. I lack the patience for large projects. Other than dollie stuff, I pretty much crochet hats for Sammy, which she seems to think should be worn even when it is 100 degrees outside.

[tephra]

The yarn color name is "claret" which is pretty accurate, it's a few shades darker than the red of a Coke can. :)

I'm not a terribly fast or patient knitter (or crocheter for that matter) and this poor shawl has spent more time in the project box than being worked on. I started it two years ago, got through the floral bits and set it aside for winter, last summer I started the leaf bits and then pretty much ignored it. I've been in a bit of a mood to finish things so when I realized it had been two years I told myself I wasn't allowed to knit on anything that I hadn't already started. It helped that the pattern got to the point where I could knit it and watch TV and that Hulu has had episodes of Eureka and Warehouse 13 turning up for the last couple weeks. :)

Now it's back in the project bin while I work out the edging. After poking around at the existing charts it looks like I get to make it up from scratch since the stitch counts won't work out. :P