I started this shawl the end of October and finished it in December. For me, this is a fairly quick knit in a lace pattern. The pattern is free on Ravelry and is quite popular. The shawl is knit in a triangle, starting at the center neck and grows as you knit it. It has a fagotted edging along the neckline. You knit the shawl in stockinette stitch to a selected number of stitches and then begin the feather and fan lace pattern. You are given an option to increase the number of pattern repeats you do so that your shawl will be longer and then you follow the second lace pattern to make the edging.
I knit this using Forsell Superwash Wool, 3 ply yarn and size 4 needles. This yarn is closer to a lace weight yarn than a fingering weight yarn and is actually a machine knitting yarn. If I were to do this shawl again, I would definitely go with a heavier yarn as I think the lace pattern would be better in at least a fingering weight yarn. I also would use a stretchy bind-off, rather than the one given in the pattern as my bound off edge was not as stretchy as I would have liked it to be and did not scallop like I thought it should when I blocked it.
The pattern itself is a very nice one, easy to follow. The finished shawl measured 19.5 inches by 56 inches, so it is more of a scarf than a shawl.
I love the color of your Traveling Woman. I felt when I knit mine it was too small! I wish I would have done a few extra repeats to make it bigger. I also thought the use of a stretchier bind off would have been best.
All of us know the standard bind-off (K2, pass first stitch over, *K1, psso, repeat from * until all stitches are bound off). This is a useful bind-off and it works well for any number of knitting projects where you need a nice firm edge. You can occasionally have trouble with it, however, if you do it too tightly and most of us have experienced the frustration of a too tight bound off edge. Most often to correct this you simply need to bind-off more loosely by pulling your stitches out a little more when doing the passing over of the stitch.
Then, there are those projects where you simply need a much more elastic – or stretchy – bind-off. I discovered a couple of these stretchier bind-offs as I was looking for a different bind-off for my Crazy Zauberball Shawl. And I thought I’d post them here for future reference with some of my notes.
You see, I tried them all in the process of finishing the shawl and ended up doing the standard bind-off anyway because I was at the very end of my yarn and all three of the bind-offs used up more yarn. So, one thing to keep in mind with these more elastic bind-offs is that they are stretchy because they use more yarn.
The Elastic Bind-off
This is a very nice, stretchy bind-off. I will probably use it for toe-up socks and ribbed necklines.
To do the Elastic Bind-off:
Knit first two stitches, then * slip them back onto the left needle.
Then knit these two stitches together through the back loop.
Knit the next stitch and repeat from * until bind off is complete.
The Lace Bind-off
This bind-off is also known as the Decrease Bind-off. It produces a very nice elastic edge that really looked nice on the edge of my shawl, but it takes about 2-3 times more yarn to complete than the standard bind-off. I would use this bind-off with any lace shawls or scarves.
To do the Lace Bind-off:
Knit together the first two stitches on the left needle, through the back loop.
Then slip the stitch now on the right needle back onto the left needle.
Repeat these two steps until the bind-off is complete.
Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off
Many sock knitters swear by this bind-off. It does produce a super elastic edge, but I don’t think I would use it on a lace shawl.
If you haven’t tried any of these bind-offs, I recommend that you do. It’s always nice to have more than one method of finishing off your lovely knitted item. I’d love to hear from any of my readers about any other bind-offs they like/love to use. Just leave me a comment (and a link if you have one). Thanks!
I just joined Socks for Soldiers. This is a nonprofit group that knits socks for our military men and women serving in the Middle East and then distributes them. See this link for more information: Socks for Soldiers, Inc.
When you sign up for this group, you make a commitment to knit daily on the socks and to make 2 pair of socks plus 5 caps in a twelve month period. There are very specific requirements for the yarn that can be used to knit the socks and you are required to follow the “regulation socks” pattern. Since I like to knit socks, this seemed like a small way to give back to our service men and women who willing serve in our military and place themselves in harm’s way regularly. I just received my first shipment of sock yarn in the regulation color, so I am off to swatch on small needles to make certain I can knit my first pair of socks to the correct gauge. I need to be able to knit 8 stitches per inch and also 9 stitches per inch with the same yarn. Starting with size 2 (3.00 mm) and working my way down to size 0 (2.00 mm).
I have read several Facebook posts and Ravelry forums where new knitters are asking about how to knit a basic hat. There are many basic beanie style hat patterns available for free on Ravelry, including one of mine: Basic Beanie Hat.
But the truth is that a basic beanie hat is fairly easy to knit without any pattern if you are familiar with its structure and know your gauge for the yarn you want to use for the hat. So this post is about the basic structure of a beanie, knit in the round.
Now, a beanie can be knit top down or bottom up, but if you look at most patterns, they are written with a bottom-up construction and this will be the approach I will follow here. There are three parts to a basic beanie: The brim, the body, and the crown. The brim of a beanie is usually done in either 1×1 ribbing (k1,p1) or 2×2 ribbing (k2,p2). The length of the brim can be relatively short – and intended to not be folded, or it can be longer so that it will be worn with the brim folded.
The body of a beanie is the part of the hat that covers the head from just above the ears to where the crown is formed. The length of the body varies according to the size of the hat, with children’s hats being shorter than an adults’ and Men’s hats are usually longer than Women’s. For a basic beanie this length is approximately the length from the top of the head to the bottom of the earlobe or half the length of measuring from the bottom of one earlobe to the other up over the top of the head.
The crown of a beanie is the area that covers the top of the head and is shaped by making decreases to form a circle that is closed at the very top.
To begin knitting the basic beanie you need to do a little math. You need to know what circumference you want it to be. If you have the measurement of the circumference of the head of person you want to fit, you can use that. If you don’t know the circumference, then you can use a standard size chart for the measurements. See the chart below. For a women’s head, I usually use a circumference of 21 – 22 inches as a starting point.
Knitted beanies are made with negative ease. Now what do I mean by that? Negative ease means that the knitted hat will be smaller than the actual circumference and I usually factor in about 10% negative ease for my beanies. This gives the hat a good fit and it hugs the wearer’s head and stays in place. Using an example of a 21 inch circumference, the knitted circumference with 10% negative ease is 19 inches. (10% of 21 = 2.1; 21-2 = 19 or if you prefer: 21 x 0.9 = 19)
You are now ready to determine how many stitches to cast on to start the brim of the beanie. For this you will need your stitch gauge in stitches per inch (spi). I usually have a gauge of 5 spi with worsted weight yarn, so in this example, I multiply 19 inches by 5 sts which gives me 95 sts. However, if I am doing 1×1 ribbing, I need an even number of stitches, so I can either round down to 94 or round up to 96 sts. If I do 2×2 ribbing, I need an even number of stitches, but the number also has to be divisible by 4. In this example, 96 is divisible by 4, so I would start with 96.
For a Women’s beanie, I usually like to knit the ribbing to a length of approximately 2 inches and then start the body. For a basic beanie, I knit the body in stockinette stitch. The body area is where you can add various textured stitch patterns or knit stripes using different colors of yarn. But the very basic beanie is knit in stockinette stitch.
The length of the hat is determined by measuring the length of the wearer’s head from the lower earlobe to the top of the crown. Another way is to measure the head from the bottom of one earlobe over the top of the head to the bottom of the other earlobe and then divide that number by 2. For a women’s hat, I usually use a length of 10.5 to 11 inches, for a men’s hat I use 11 to 11.5 inches. See the standard size chart above for further information. The crown of the hat is approximately 1/3 of the total length of the hat. So, once the ribbing is done, you knit the body to the desired length where the crown shaping starts (measured from the cast on edge). In my example of a women’s hat with a total length of 11 inches, I would knit to a length of 7.5inches. The remaining length of the hat is where the crown is shaped using decreases.
My next post covers things you need to consider to knit the crown of the beanie.
I love the color of your Traveling Woman. I felt when I knit mine it was too small! I wish I would have done a few extra repeats to make it bigger. I also thought the use of a stretchier bind off would have been best.