Crescents
I've done a post on circles before, or was it two? I really like understanding how things are done. So I'm fascinated by the problem of how to get a particular shape and why a certain sequence of increases and decreases accomplishes it.
Recently I've spent (or shall I say wasted?) quite some time trying to determine how to get a crescent shape all on my own. Eventually I was clever enough (I'm trying to think positive, but the truth is I was stupid enough to spend many hours thinking and knitting before I realized that...) to realize that I needed to check out some patterns done by others. It is faster and less error prone.
So I went to Ravelry and used their great search engine to look at other people's work. Here are some of my results.
There are many ways of getting a crescent shape, as you can imagine. The simplest one is:
About the tips: the first and last 3 stitches of every row are done in garter stitch to avoid curling. Needless to say you can replace garter with another non-curling stitch, like the pretty seed stitch, for example.
About the increases: you can see this pattern involves increasing 6 stitches every two rows and these increases are all done at the tips. If you do this you get something that is approximately a half circle. If you want to obtain a thin crescent, you should replace the two stitches increases, I2, with simple increases, I1. This means increasing 2 stitches every row.
Of course, a plain stockinette shawl is boring and you may want to add some pretty lace. Eyeblink by Heidi Alander does just that.
To improve the cast-on and set-up region, there is a neat method that involves casting-on 3 stitches, doing 7 rows of garter and then picking up stitches from two sides of this rectangle. This method is called Garter Tab Cast-on, is much easier to accomplish than it sounds and gives a better looking result. Here is a nice tutorial. It's well worth doing if you intend to use the shawl as a scarf with this region in front. Here are two very nice patterns that use this method: Lionberry by Narniel of Endor and Zoolandia by the amazing Stephen West.
If you take a pick at Stephen West's pattern, you'll see he uses a very different sequence of increases. Indeed, you do not need to do the increases evenly distributed as on the recipe I give above. It's like when knitting circles, where my two posts described two ways of getting a round shape, the first method distributed the increases evenly over rows, the second concentrated them in a few rows. In Zoolandia there is a mixed approach, it uses 2 increases in every row and the other increases are concentrated at the rows with long stitches. This method is important, because most shawls include beautiful lace patterns and lace patterns have a certain number of repetitions. So, often, evenly distributed increases "ruin" these repetitions. One way to deal with this problem is to do the increases in rows in between different lace stitches, here is a beautiful example of a lace shawl which is done this way.
These patterns all involve knitting rows with an arch shape. You may prefer the effect given by rows that are parallel to the straight line of the top. This is easy enough to accomplish using short rows. All About Love by Sylvia Bo Bilvia is a good example of this method.
Recently I've spent (or shall I say wasted?) quite some time trying to determine how to get a crescent shape all on my own. Eventually I was clever enough (I'm trying to think positive, but the truth is I was stupid enough to spend many hours thinking and knitting before I realized that...) to realize that I needed to check out some patterns done by others. It is faster and less error prone.
So I went to Ravelry and used their great search engine to look at other people's work. Here are some of my results.
There are many ways of getting a crescent shape, as you can imagine. The simplest one is:
- Cast-on 7 stitches
- Row 1: k3, I1, I1, I1, k3 (10 stitches)
- Even rows: k3, I1, purl every stitch except the last few ones, I1, k3 (+2 stitches)
- Odd rows: k3, I2, knit every stitch except the last few ones, I2, k3 (+4 stitches)
- Four final rows in garter stitch to avoid curling.
About the tips: the first and last 3 stitches of every row are done in garter stitch to avoid curling. Needless to say you can replace garter with another non-curling stitch, like the pretty seed stitch, for example.
About the increases: you can see this pattern involves increasing 6 stitches every two rows and these increases are all done at the tips. If you do this you get something that is approximately a half circle. If you want to obtain a thin crescent, you should replace the two stitches increases, I2, with simple increases, I1. This means increasing 2 stitches every row.
Of course, a plain stockinette shawl is boring and you may want to add some pretty lace. Eyeblink by Heidi Alander does just that.
To improve the cast-on and set-up region, there is a neat method that involves casting-on 3 stitches, doing 7 rows of garter and then picking up stitches from two sides of this rectangle. This method is called Garter Tab Cast-on, is much easier to accomplish than it sounds and gives a better looking result. Here is a nice tutorial. It's well worth doing if you intend to use the shawl as a scarf with this region in front. Here are two very nice patterns that use this method: Lionberry by Narniel of Endor and Zoolandia by the amazing Stephen West.
If you take a pick at Stephen West's pattern, you'll see he uses a very different sequence of increases. Indeed, you do not need to do the increases evenly distributed as on the recipe I give above. It's like when knitting circles, where my two posts described two ways of getting a round shape, the first method distributed the increases evenly over rows, the second concentrated them in a few rows. In Zoolandia there is a mixed approach, it uses 2 increases in every row and the other increases are concentrated at the rows with long stitches. This method is important, because most shawls include beautiful lace patterns and lace patterns have a certain number of repetitions. So, often, evenly distributed increases "ruin" these repetitions. One way to deal with this problem is to do the increases in rows in between different lace stitches, here is a beautiful example of a lace shawl which is done this way.
These patterns all involve knitting rows with an arch shape. You may prefer the effect given by rows that are parallel to the straight line of the top. This is easy enough to accomplish using short rows. All About Love by Sylvia Bo Bilvia is a good example of this method.
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