I ran out of yarn last night, and I deliberately didn't wind up any of the other three hanks of yarn so I'd be forced to put it on waste yarn, pin it out, and measure it! Why in the world am I doing that? Because 1.) I want to see how big it's coming out, and 2.) if it's not as big as I want it to be, I need to know now so that I can order more yarn (and know how much to order).
Here it is without being pulled on and pinned out:
Right now, pinned out, its radius is 17" and its diameter is 34". So where does that leave me?
I'm not really sure. A very helpful member of the Lace Knitting forum group gave me some formulas for a circular shawl, so I'm not sure how relevant they are to a pi shawl.
What's the difference?
Well, a regular circular shawl has a somewhat regular rate of increases. That is, roughly (and I mean really roughly) every other round has eight increases in order to make it flat. With a pi shawl, each band has double the number of stitches in the previous band. So if you look at the picture above you can see a round of holes every so often--this is an increase round where the stitch count doubles. The variation in the width of the Horseshoe pattern is created by stretching the knitting, not from any increasing. Clear as mud?
So using Marianne's helpful numbers, if my first radius is 17", the next ball will yield a band approximately 6.97" or a shawl of 47.94" across. The third ball will yield a band 5.44" or make the shawl 58.82". A fourth ball will make a band 4.59" for a shawl that's 68" in diameter, which is getting closer to the size I need.
I want it bigger than that so that I can actually wear it--I'm not small around the shoulders by any stretch of the imagination.
I think the next thing to do is to figure out how many rounds I've done, then figure out if I can add another band of the Diamond Madeira, THEN add a wider edging. Or at least a different edging. The one on the original pattern isn't bad, but it's not one of my favorites either.
Then I've got to figure out how much MORE yarn I need to order. I'm guessing (and it's just a stab in the dark) that I'll need two or three more hanks. I'll probably order four more just to be safe. Hopefully the dye lots will be kind of close.
6 comments:
It looks gorgeous so far!
Beautiful - have yet to do a round shawl myself.
Beautiful shawl!! The color you used is one of my favorites.
I am knitting on two shawls at present; Orenburg Diamond Triangular Shawl and one Meg is wearing in The Gathering of Lace. I don't have the book here with me to mention which pattern.
Ya gotta love lace AND your blog!
Hiya, I may be not thinking this through the right way (yes that sounds like good english to me hehehehe), but as each band is double the previous band in number of rows in a pi shawl, can't you measure how many inches you've got in the last section and double that to get an approximate idea??? Am I making any sense here? So if there's 5 inches between the last 2 increase rows, you'd have approx. 10 inches in the next part and thus will the radius (center point to border) grow with 10 inches or the diameter (border to border) with 20 inches.
hope this makes sense to ya :)
Dang! That is awesome when it is pinned out. You are doing beautiful work!
Kat, you need a link on your blog that says "email me." Thanks for your comment on my spinning, but really, sweetie, all it takes is practice. It seems I've been spinning a few more years than you, so I can safely say that your spinning will improve. It will improve more rapidly if you have really well-prepared fiber. :) I buy a lot of fleeces, wash them and send them out for processing. I get back roving (not top) that is really, really easy to spin. It makes a big difference, believe me.
About your shawls - whew! Last night I made a huge boo-boo on my Syrian shawl and trying to fix it did not improve the situation at all. Maybe someday I'll knit lace as well as you!
Post a Comment