Looking back at knitting Gene Tierney
I’m always working on some project or another, which means I often have FOs and new designs to share. You can see all my FOs … here … and all my designs … here.
I don’t have any new FOs this Friday, so I thought I’d take a look back at one of my older pieces. Gene Tierney, the divine
I’ve recently fallen back in love with this shawl and have been wearing it everywhere the past couple days. It’s large and cushy without being heavy or dense. It’s super easy to wear, and looks great with just about anything.
I originally designed this shawl for the Sanguine Gryphon’s Fall 2011 “Film Noir” pattern line. The original sample was knit with two skeins of Mithril (which the Verdant Gryphon now carries) in the “Der Blaue Engel” colorway. I’ve since re-released the pattern, which you can get here.
The craziest thing about this shawl is how much I LOVE it now, compared to how over it I was when the pattern first came out.
Since I tend to design very large, intricate shawls that can’t generally be whipped up in a couple days, I try to be very conscious of deadlines and how much I’m knitting when I’m knitting on a deadline for a publication. Usually I work out how many days between when I get the yarn and when I need to mail off the sample, then I determine the number of rows I need to knit every day between now and then to get the sample done with plenty of time to block it and mail it, and make sure it gets to the publication on time. Usually I try to build in plenty of cushion into this schedule because I’ve found that, just like I don’t really knit small shawls, I don’t really make small mistakes either, and the larger the shawl the larger the mistake.
Somehow this didn’t whole planning thing didn’t happen for Gene Tierney.
I don’t remember why this process didn’t happen. Maybe it’s because it was summer, or I had a lot of other work at the time (theater and knitwear), or because I knew I was going on vacation for a week so I’d have lots of knitting time, or I just got distracted because I knew it was a rectangle so I didn’t have to front load so much of the knitting like I do with shawls where the stitch count increases. But for whatever reason it didn’t happen.
So about half way through my week-long family vacation, in the middle of August, in the middle-of-nowhere upstate New York, I glanced at my calender and said “shit.”
The shawl was due in something like two weeks, and I hadn’t exactly been power knitting through the sample. I think I had maybe one repeat done (out of six).
So I flipped. And then finished knitting the shawl in seven or eight days. Not something I can highly recommend.
I blocked the shawl, wrote the pattern, sent the shawl off asap and just made the deadline. At which point, even though I loved the pattern, and the yarn, and the design, I was a little over it.
Needless to say the feeling I had when the pattern finally came out, all I could think was “thank god it’s done.”
So, I eventually got the sample back, put it in a drawer, and didn’t look at it for awhile. Re-released the pattern, but then put it back in the drawer. Only to pull it out one day this spring and fall in love all over again.
You can find the details for the pattern here.
If you’d like more FO Friday posts, visit Tami’s blog.
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Knit, knit, knit
I’m always working on some project or another, and most weeks I talk about what I’m working on Wednesdays as part of Tami’s WIP Wednesday project. You can see past WIP Wednesdays … right this way.
I hit a point in every shawl where it just gets super boring to blog or talk about. The exact point changes from shawl to shawl, but it’s generally somewhere just past the middle.
Getting to the middle is relatively fast and easy and exciting because of NEW PATTERN! feelings. And it’s not quite the point where I’ve hit the final slog of the last repeat or two, where I just want the shawl done. It’s somewhere between the two where I’m just kind of “eh, ok” about the project.
I still love the yarn, and still love the pattern, but it’s the point where I know the design will now work out, the pattern kinks are all worked out, I can visualize what the final product is going to be, and now I’m just knitting…
and knitting….
and knitting…
and I kinda want to start something new.
Interestingly enough, this is also generally the point where I start casting about for a name. For this shawl I’m thinking maybe “Intan” which means diamond in Indonesian. Let me know what you think, or if you have another suggestion.
Speaking of starting new projects, I’m winding yarn to knit a second Kora.
It’s part of a KAL we’re doing over in my Ravelry group. Come over and join us. It’s a super low key knit along, but loads of fun. You can get the pattern here, and join the KAL here.
If you’d like more WIP Wednesday posts from other bloggers, visit Tami’s blog.
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Shawl Geometry: Square Knit in the Round
This is the first post in a series about different shawl shapes and how to knit them. All the posts in the series can be found right here.
The easiest way to think about shawl shapes is to understand the basic geometric shapes: square, triangle, and circle, and then manipulate and decorate them to get all these other shawl shapes and styles.
But there are also multiple ways to create each basic shape: backwards, forwards, and sideways.
The Square Knit in the Round, is knit in the round. This shawl is shaped with four pairs (eight total) of evenly spaced increases (or decreases), worked every other round. The pairs of increases (or decreases) radiate outwards (or inwards) from the center of your shawl to the hem pushing (or pulling) the fabric to form the four corners of your square.
The Square Knit in the Round from the center out
The most traditional way to create a square is in the round from the center out. To do this you increase 8 stitches in pairs every other round.
Center Out Knitting Instructions
CO 8sts. Join in the round, being careful not to twist.
{4 sections + 4 spines}
R1: (pm, yo, k1, yo, pm, k1) 4 times.
R2: knit around.
R3: (sm, yo, k to marker, yo, sm, k1) 4 times.
R4: knit around.
Rep R3&4 to desired dimensions.
Bind off loosely.
The Square Knit in the Round from the hem out
You can also knit from the hem to the center by decreasing 8 stitches in pairs every other round.
Knitting any shawl from the hem inwards takes a little more planning than working one from the center out. With a shawl knit from the center out you can keep increasing until you reach your desired size, or until you run out of yarn. But knitting a shawl from the hem into the center requires that you know your size information before you begin, so you can cast on an accurate number of stitches.
Calculating your cast on
Determine your final gauge and desired width.
[Desired width] / 2 = [width from CO to BO]
[Width from CO to BO] x [rnd gauge] = [# of rnds]
[# of rnds] / 2 = [# of dec rnds]
[# of dec rnds] x [8sts decreased per dec rnd] = [# of sts decreased]
Make sure this number is divisible by 8.
[# of sts decreased] = [# of sts to CO]
Calculating your stitch marker placement
[# of sts to CO] / [4 shawl sections] = [# of sts in one section aka Y]
Center Out Knitting Instructions
CO [# of sts to CO]. Join in the round, being careful not to twist.
R1: (pm, ssk, kY minus four, k2tog) 4 times.
R2: knit around.
R3: (sm, ssk, k to 2sts before marker, k2tog) 4 times.
R4: knit around.
Rep R3&4 to 8sts.
Bind off loosely.
Break yarn leaving a tail, and thread tail through live stitches, pull tight and weave in your end. (The same way you would finish off the crown of a hat.)
So if you CO 48 sts. Join in the round, being careful not to twist. (This step is a total PITA.)
R1: (pm, k12) 4 times.
R2: (sm, k2tog, k8, ssk) 4 times.
R3: knit around.
R4: (sm, k2tog, k to 2sts before marker, ssk) 4 times.
Repeat R3&4 to 8sts.
Bind off loosely.
The previous post: Shawl Geometry Introduction
The next post: Wedge Circle
