Throughout May my ‘Summer Seas‘ digital (PDF) shawl pattern is on sale with a 20% discount. Buy it here.
I’m particularly proud of the construction I engineered for this design. I wanted a stole with a scalloped edging all the way around. There are various possible ways to achieve this:
- Knit from the outside inwards, with corner decreases, then work a graft at the centre.
- Knit a long narrow edging with corner turns, then pick up stitches along the edging to work the centre outside inwards.
- Knit the centre as one long strip, then pick up stitches around it to work the edging outwards.
I wasn’t keen on any of these options:
- Involves an enormous cast-on (many hundreds of stitches; there are 924 sts around the outer edge of Summer Seas).
- Involves lots of picking up stitches, somethng I struggle to do with a level of neatness that satisfies me.
- Same reason as 2.
In the end I worked out a method that is a reverse of number one, working from the centre ourwards with increases at the corners to create the rectangle shape, commencing with Judy’s Magic Cast-on. The hardest part was working out how to place the patterns so that the two half diamonds aligned correctly along the centre line to create full diamonds that straddle the cast-on. I managed it, making the cast-on virtually invisible:
(Find the diamonds in which both ends of the diamond have decrease lines; the middle row in these diamonds is the cast-on row.)
After the cast-on Summer Seas is a relatively easy knit, with very simple lace patterns; a small diamond lace, and a feather and fan border, with a few rounds of garter stitch before the cast-off. It’s a satisfying knit with an elegant result.
I love this design, and I hope you do too!
