In Shawl Insanity

So last winter, I went to visit Kitty & Arne in Eckernfoerde.  In the process, I birthed the Twin Monstrosities of Awesome that are my red leggings.  Because I needed something to wear for the cold, right?  I also took over a suitcase literally half-filled with an explosion of color in the form of warmth-giving expressions of Love.  (Which makes more sense if you know how awkward I am about showing affection.)

A few years ago, I came to the realization that my brain doesn't generate "Art" as most people perceive it.  In my head, Beauty has true value only if it has at least some form of Utility.  Sometimes the utility may lie simply in the mathematical acrobatics necessary to make it happen.  But if you can start with aiming at creation of a tool, start running up the hill of mental ninja skillz, and end with several examples of Woolen Math Gone Awesome?  It's deserving of a ::happydance::, to say the least.

So asking Kitty what sort of things would work well for her, she mentioned coming across some examples of traditional Danish tie shawls.  Lust auf Farben has some fantastic photos of them.  (Check out "STR 11" specifically.)  Those feature what looks like an I-cord edging & braided ties.

Now, I could have just bought the pattern & sorted it out from there, right? ::ahem::  Yeah.  Right.  Instead, I had to sit down with a similar garter-stitch shawl at the shop, pore over the photos & links to every pattern that Ravelry offered up in return for "danish shawl", & then try to determine the best-fit method of getting what I wanted.  One month & over 2000 yards of project-specific yarn later, I have some Good Sh*t to show for it.

First came the Danish Sea Shawl (say *that* three times fast) in blues.  I had found 660 yards of run-of-the-mill blue variegated worsted wool for deal so obnoxiously good that I momentarily ignored the fact that I work for a yarn shop.  I mean, it's a test-drive, right?  That's going to be sent overseas, right?  I already knew I'd be keeping it out of the shop, since the yarn came from elsewhere, but on top of that, it was going to be almost half a mile of garter stitch.  Optimal set of circumstances for drunken/TV knitting.

Hand-winding said worsted wool, I realized that being cheap wool, it felt like... well, cheap wool.  But it's blue...  Rooting around in the wooden blue bin, I found not only a single skein of periwinkle Laines du Nord CashSilk (69 yeards), but later what appeared to be a skein & a half of sky-blue Rowan KidSilk Haze.  Looking back, these made up part of my original Ravatar, so they've been living in my house rent-free for at least 2 years now.  ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Beginning to Bust the Stash. 

As I powered through the end of the CashSilk, I found the KidSilk & started carrying it along.  When the good stuff ran out, I picked up the worsted wool in its place & kept going with the mohair.  At the point of that first picture, I began to realize that I wasn't increasing fast enough.  As it was, I'd end up with a flat-top shawl, & I needed a curly-tipped shawl.  Time to up the ante, and there's no point in turning back now: just start increasing more.

Spread out over 4+ circs to see the shape-in-progress

I had been increasing 4 times every 2nd row (1x on the edge, 2x in the center, 1x on the other edge, knit back even).  Kicking it into overdrive meant 6 times every 2nd row: (2x on the edge, 2x in the center, 2x on the far edge, knit back even).  Here in the 2nd picture, you can kind of see the kink where the super-increases start.

The back of my head encouraged me to put other markers in my work, so when I realized that I was about to run out of the first 220 yard skein of variegated blue yarn, I held along a strand of pale blue Ruca from Aracaunia.  That didn't use all of the scrap that I had, so I did it again at the end of my second skein of 220 yards.  Which is nice, because I have a good visual on where what will end where for later.  Notice the near-halving of the vertical length generated per skein.

As I was trucking along, I got BORED.  Wanting it to go faster, I started using larger & larger needles.  8 to 9 to 10 to 11.  Mostly one per skein.  And as I started to get toward the end, I got to worrying about the bind-off.  As it is, I'm a tight knitter, and my bind-offs are worse.  I've already had problems with a piece being unwearable because of the bind-off alone, so I needed a plan.

Picot edge bind off gave me the stretchiness I needed while giving a nice finished edge.  It sucked up all kinds of yarn, since it involved casting on 2 stitches, then binding off 4 stitches.

With the bitty bit of yarn leftover, I crocheted chains that were later braided together to make the ties.  The end results measure about 10" long, with the trailing tails braided as well on one side for additional length.

Getting a picture of me in my shawl without putting myself in the position of needing to do an hour or two of thorough cleaning is a fair task.  I've got to post on the RealTree Camo Wind Armor shawl, so I'll see what I can get together when that comes around.