When I knit 3 more points of edging on the swatch I will come to the bottom point of the shawl. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do when I get there. None, nada, zip. Clearly, since I have a 90 degree corner to turn, I’m going to have to do something, I mean, you can’t just ignore it. Can you?
Choice A.
Work some kind of mitred clever point thing. Sort of like the point on the Butterfly Shawl. Advantages….well, I think the math is doable. Even for a numerically challenged person like me. I think the pointy pattern could be made to come to an Uber-point without too much screwing around. (Note to self: every time you say that something shouldn’t be to hard the project immediately sucks you to the very gates of Hades, don’t smart-ass about how you think you can do it “without too much screwing around”. You will be punished) Disadvantages: I don’t think it would look as good as choice B.
Choice B.
Work some kind of short row magic and mystically get the points to continue around the 90 degree turn uninterrupted. Like the point on “Concert in the park“. (Which is one of the most stunning things in the world. I swear in the name of all things wooly that this shawl will be mine…I want it in the colourway “forest floor”. Be still my heart.)
Advantages: pretty, pretty, pretty. Clever too, and I think that it would fit in better with the overall look of the swatch. Disadvantages: I have no idea how to do that. I can short row, that’s not too hard, but how on earth do you short row pointy lace and still have pointy lace at the end of it?
Choice C.
Screw it and knit tiger bootees.
Yarn Harlot
That is one cute bootie. (Booty?)
I don’t suppose that fate is kind and that one of the points will end up at the end on its own? No, of course not; they never do.
Here’s a third (fourth?) option: design some nifty new shape to hang off the end — a featherish thing, maybe? — then resume on the other side.
I usually do B.Short-rowing & fudging may way round the corner/point,making sure one peak is centred on that point.
It’ll look beautiful.
I kind of like Rana’s suggestion for your point (especially since I don’t have to design it or do the math)
I am a yarn pig, and daughter of the yarn-pig of all time. Eaton’s quit selling wool some years ago. Mom was there at store opening. There were 4 huges bins of yarn. She grabbed a sales clerk, picked out 4 skeins, and the clerk said “are these the ones you want?” and Mom said “No, no these are the ones I don’t want. Please help me pack the rest to the till” We managed to get her out of the store without injury from the junior yarn-pigs present, but it was a close run thing.
I use stash yarn that I don’t like (its good wool, I just don’t like it….honest) to make squares for the “Blanket Canada” program. They are delivered to homeless people here in Canada. Volunteers will actually go out, find these people sleeping under bridges, and hand over a blanket. I feel that one square entitles me to one yarn purchase. Which has turned me into a bin-pig since I need more and more plastic bins. The scary thing is that as the only knitter in the family except the Queen Yarn-Pig, I will inherit all her yarn. And I only have two non-knitting boys. Who do I leave my poor orphaned yarn to when I’m gone??? It leaves me awake at nights.
Barb
Steph – your ever-so-helpful links lead me to expensive, time-consuming and wool-piggish places. That shawl – forest floor for me too, or treebark. Your shawl is coming together so quickly and beautifully – will you be sharing that pattern somewhere?
I’ll put the pattern up here when I’m done. You can knit it if you dare.
Barb….my mother doesn’t knit.
I say procrastinate on the point and work on the bootees. They’re quick and then you can use the lovely energetic glow from finishing them to go back to the point. Of course, if you were me, you’d find yet another thing to work on . . .
If it were me, I’d ignore it. Act like nothing’s wrong. And when people ask you about it, say, “What point?”
Or, you could work two separate halfs of a triangle (so two right triangles) and then sew them together. That would make more of a pointy point.
Frankly, I like the uber-point like on this one: http://www.joslynsfiberfarm.com/sheep_shawl.htm. However, by now you are aware that I’m biased towards Very Pointy.
How did you get the bootie so tiger-y? I need to make booties for a baby shower and was planning Koigu. But tiger is way better.
I love the tiger booties! Too cute. Details please. I am assuming there is no pattern involved?
And I’m for B on the swatch. I’ve enjoyed the process. Beautiful swatching work 🙂
OK, I have no business offering advice, but I am going to anyway, so do what you want with it. Ahem…. I have never bordered around a corner. I actually have never “really” bordered. BUT, I love knitting lace, and while reading Barbara Abbey’s book on the topic, she discusses knitting borders around corners, and she said that if the pattern can’t be mitered, (which I don’t know how to do), then just pick up more stitches and knit the border fuller around the corner so it will make it around the bend, not worrying about making it centered. There, I’ve said it, all of you who are more experienced can snicker at will. In my defense, the pictures accompanying the instructions looked very nice. Good luck!
Just here to do a little enabling…Zarya Fog can be yours….aren’t you a Yarn Pig? It’s a lovely color but the sweetly colored Latvian Lavender was calling to me….so now need to be overly envious. Go get some girl!
That shawl/er swatch is one of the most beautiful shawls I’ve ever seen…sigh.
I don’t know anything about any of this, so sorry I can’t offer any opinion. :o/ But hi Stephanie! I recently found your blog and I love all the pictures and am enjoying reading through your archives. 🙂
I like A… or a variant of A. The two half points thing. (Ooohhh… I am so articulate)
Next step: tiger socks?? (please to the nth degree)
I am actaully knitting Concert In The Park at this very moment, but haven’t done the edging yet. I agree with Laura A. though, I think you just pick up more rows for an inch or 2 on each side of the point. I have short-rowed shawl points also (pg. 20 of Handspun Treasures) Not as difficult as it looks!
I would go with the Barbara Abbey solution that LauraA mentioned above and just pick up more stitches before and after the point so the edging is fuller around the corner.
If you are joining the edging to live stitches, you could work an edging repeat or two in the corner area by joining into each live shawl stitch twice. That will give you twice as many edging rows per shawl stitch as before without fussing with short rows.
Or, you could join the edging every *other* time it bumps up against the main piece like this: *Work an edging row joined as usual, work 3 rows of edging without joining; repeat from * until you’ve rounded the horn. This also gives you double the number of edging rows per shawl stitch. The small stacks of unjoined rows aren’t really noticeable once the shawl is blocked.
“rounded the horn”? (Lori’s comment) Whoa… sounds adventurous… like sailing ’round the Horn… Is everything tied down? Do we have enough provisions?
(this is only funny in my head, right?)
Oh Ms. Harlot!
I loved your back page in the new Spin Off. I laughed so hard that my significant other even read it which prompted him to ask me: “Are all of you like this?”. Lucky me I had a Wheel already when I met him.
Thank you so much, your Blog is splendid.