Evenstar 1:2

I completed the first “clue” of the mystery shawl tonight. There is a photograph, here

It has not gone smoothly. I used the Thom Christoph circular cast-on. The link given in the pattern to a photo tutorial defeated the pair of us. Mr L did find me a You Tube video that was more helpful. In truth, the cast on itself was less troublesome than setting the stitches was. I think it took something like 6 or 7 attempts before I fnally got going. I was certainly on the edge of tears just before success set in. I was in fact very close to cutting my DPNs in half…

The first few rounds were showing ladders between the needles, so I swapped to magic loop on a long circular. That caused ladders too – and I switched to my smallest circular needle as soon as I could – too soon,  really. Things were a bit of a strain for several rounds but eased up after a while. I’m now on my next cable size up.

All behind me now! 🙂

Clue 1 was essentially the test swatch revisited and done in the round. It took us through a plain centre of 9 then 18, 36, and 72 stitches before increasing to 144 stitches and 28 rounds of the first charted pattern. The increases are the standard Pi shawl style, so the next clue should see us up to 288 stitches.

  • 1 round of 9 stitches
  • 3 rounds of 18 stitches
  • 6 rounds of 36 stitches
  • 12 rounds of 72 stitches
  • 24 28 rounds of 144 stitches

Ah, well, close enough, eh? 🙂

The needle tips are causing me much difficulty with the yarn. I may see if I can get them replaced – the part where the metal fitting joins the wooden tip is distinctly rough and my tender silk yarn catches on it all the time. It does the yarn no good at all and slows the knitting down massively, as I have to ease every one of the stitches over it.

Next clue: 26th February, 11pm

I shall be working on the Citron in the meantime.