Well, five mini shawls. The 5 Shawls 5 Days Challenge from Aroha Knits is a quick course in shawl shaping. Five shapes are presented over five days with easy instructions via email. Occasionally there are "bonus" versions and because this fell over a weekend there was a "bonus" shape on Saturday. I did a couple of the extra versions and ended up with eight shawls. The Bug is excited because they're all going to the dolls when I'm done.
My goal was to do a consistent number of increase rows for all of these shawls so I could get a really good idea of what it takes to get shawls to a certain size and shape. There are a couple of these that I ended up doing double or even triple of these increases because their construction resulted in a very slow growth and they would have ended up very tiny in comparison to the others.
Day 1: Triangular Shawl
This started with a garter tab cast on. I just learned how to do these with a test knit a few weeks ago. I've heard a lot of horror associated with this, but I found it pretty easy to get a grasp on. It makes for a really nice even border. I'm not always a fan of the garter borders. I think if I was going to design with the tab cast on I would want to experiment with doing it in stockinette.
This shawl starts with nine stitches after the garter tab and increases four stitches every RS row. I knit for 24 rows after the garter tab with 12 rows of increasing for a total stitch count of 57 across the bottom.
This also has nine stitches after the garter tab, but it increases four stitches on the RS and two stitches on the WS to get the curved wings. I knit for 24 rows after the garter tab with 12 rows of increases on both the RS and WS for a total stitch count of 81 across the bottom.
I used the basic bind off for both of these and it was a bit too tight. I think I prefer the winged shawl over the basic triangle. Personally, I wear all shawls as scarves so the winged one is a little bit easier to wear in that way.
Day 2: Semi-Circular Shawl
This is a very similar construction to the triangular shawl with a slight adjustment to how the increases are worked. Because the second and third increase is made in the middle it pushes the shawl into a semi-circle shape. I changed my bind off from yesterday to a stretchy bind off and it was much better.
This shawl ends up with the same number of stitches as the triangular shawl. I knit 24 rows after the garter tab with 12 rows of increases on the RS. It starts with the nine from the garter tab and increases four every row for a total stitch count of 57 across the bottom.
I'm still not a huge fan of the garter stitch edge on the top so I made a second one where I did a stockinette edge. I almost got it perfect, but there is one row in the tab that has purl bumps. I'll have to work with that some more. I also took the opportunity to play with how the increases are made. The pattern calls for YOs, but I used M1R and M1L. I also did an icord bind off to mimic the top edge.
The stitch count for this lines up with the winged triangular shawl. I knit 24 rows after the garter tab with 12 increase rows (RS and WS). There were nine stitches from the garter tab and it increased four stitches on the RS and two stitches on the WS for a total stitch count of 81 across the bottom.
For these very plain shawls with no detailing on the panels I much prefer the M1 increases over the YOs.
Day 3: Cresent Shawl
I think this might be my favorite of the shapes that we did this challenge. It's also where I lost my battle with playing around in the pattern. This is also started with a garter tab. The increases are done only on the ends. Someone in the Facebook group shared a way to have the eyelets continue across the tab, but I had already completed mine by that time. About 2/3 of the way through I realized that I could use all of the blank stockinette to practice some things for an upcoming MKAL. So I added a lace row and a row of nupps.
This shawl starts with 10 stitches after the garter tab and increases four stitches on the RS and two stitches on the WS. I knit for 24 rows after the garter tab with 12 increase rows (RS and WS) for a total stitch count of 82 across the bottom.
Day 4: Side to Side Shawl
This is a great shawl shape if you want to finish up an entire skein of yarn. You start at one point and work the increases until you're halfway through your yarn (kitchen scales are your friend!) or until it's a deep as you want and then you start decreasing.
This shawl starts with three stitches and increases one stitch each RS row. This results in a slower growing shawl so I ended up doing 24 increase rows before I started decreasing. This shawl is 98 rows across (including cast on and bind off).
Day 5: Asymmetrical Triangular Shawl
This is a fun shape, but it grows extremely slowly. It's a shape that I would really like to play around with more. The curve happens by increasing one stitch at the start of the RS row, decreasing one stitch at the start of the WS row, and increasing one stitch at the end of the WS row.
This shawl starts with four stitches at the small point and increases one stitch every two rows. I knit 72 rows with 36 increase rows and there were 40 stitches on the bind off edge.
Bonus Shawl!
This one gave me a headache... It was a bonus shawl and I could have skipped it, but apparently I'm incapable of that. This square shawl is knit from the center. I tried it on double points the first time and that was a mess of needles and stitch markers. Add to that the needles I had purchased were a shoddy brand that weren't actually the size 6 needles the package said and I quickly tore it out.
After returning the crap needles (Loops and Threads I'm looking at you...) I literally taught myself the magic loop method just to get this thing figured out. My circular needle was a bit short so there is some laddering, but oh well.
This starts with eight stitches in the center and increases eight stitches every row. I knit one row without increases to join it in the round and then I knit 24 rows with 12 increase rows for a final stitch count of 104 around the outside.
This was not my favorite shape. Besides the difficulty in starting it at the center it is not a shape that I'm likely to wear.
Things I learned from this project:
- All about shawls! I'm looking forward to experimenting with these.
- I can now do the magic loop! However, I definitely need a longer cable next time. Up next: two at a time!
- Shawls that start at the center are not my favorite things... They're finicky to start, but it got better the bigger it got.
- There is more math in knitting that you think there will be... It was interesting seeing where the differences could be made.
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