Chapter One

I’ve added this post to Unraveled Wednesday, with thanks to Kat for hosting.

I’m progressing nicely on this shawl, still proud of every single row I get right (which is most of them, leading to a lot of smiling and holding up my knitting and rejoicing). Last time I posted I was finishing section F, and just getting into the first colour change. Now, I’ve whizzed ahead to… well to a quarter of the way through section G, which doesn’t sound very far when you put it like that.

I’m well into the darker colours of the yarn, though, with just one thread of the original light grey still in the mix. It feels like there’s still far too much yarn left. I still haven’t really got the hang of judging how far yarn goes in a pattern. Theoretically I should be left with 75 yards of yarn when I’m done so I wasn’t expecting to play yarn chicken or anything, but I expected the skein to look more forlorn by now. Plus I do want the tips of the wings to be black so we’ll need to make it to near the end for that to happen.

(I did some weighing and some maths at this point to see if I could gain any insight into whether I was on track with yarn. I ended up boring myself. I shan’t subject you to it.)

With that said, this part is the final series of feathers (I’m making size B), and they’re considerably bigger by this point. The shawl casts on at 115 stitches and now I’m at over 400. While I haven’t done many rows since last update, those rows are doozies. It’s a really pleasant challenge. There are ongoing increases to consider, too, and there will be 483 stitches in each row right before binding off. I’m gonna have to switch to my circular.

I much prefer straight needles. I don’t exactly use the lever knitting method but it’s in that ballpark; I like to hold my right needle under my arm, and with a circular needle I need to hold it against my lap to get the right action. I don’t hold that needle so much as steady it while making the stitch. I started knitting this way not because I read about it, or went looking for the best method, but because I used to take a lot of train journeys and I wanted to keep my elbows out of my seat-neighbours’ personal space. This led to me holding my work all the way to the right, and when it got there it just seemed natural to wedge the needle into the crook of my arm…

Looking ahead, parts H and I are both for finishing and binding off the feather tips. You do the right hand side, then the left. I think it will make sense when I’m actually doing it. Like origami – I’m usually a written instructions kind of person but some things you just can’t write down suitably, they’re too three dimensional.

So far, so great with Wingspan. I recommend it and am excited to keep on trucking. Then I’ll just need to figure out what to do with 75 yards (or 16g (sorry, maths)) of four ply cotton.

As a reminder: this is Wingspan (Ravelry link) by VectorKnits (Designer’s site). I’m knitting it in Cotton Kings Sultan Shadow (Hobbii link).