Tuesday, January 19, 2010

As Promised!

Swallowtail Shawl By Evelyn Clark
Knit Picks Shadow, in Eggplant, 1 skein. Knit on US 4.
Beads - Clear Size 6, Purple AB, Size E (Size 8 crochet Hook).

This was a great knit. I had never done nupps before, and they were absolutely easy. I am a visual learner, so I did find myself a video to watch just to ensure I had my act together. The beads were even easier, but I did feel like they were more time consuming. The pattern is well written, provides charts and written directions, as well as the differing amounts of yarn and needle sizes needed if you opt to use heavier gauge yarn.

For those of you who are worried about beads - it's a 4 step process.

1. Put bead on crochet hook and hold it up the hook with your middle finger.
2. Use crochet hook to pick up the stitch you intend to bead off of the left needle.
3. Use your middle finger to slide bead down the crochet hook and onto live stitch.
4. Replace stitch onto left needle, and knit the stitch.
(Check out this guide on Knitty for more info)

Seriously. That's all there is too it. Apparently some patterns indicate whether or not to knit the stitch once it has the bead on it. For the swallowtail, there is no beading information in the pattern, so I opted to knit the stitch. There are a great many resources and out there if you are wanting to bead this particular shawl. Ravelry member "yards-of-yarn" has great info in regards to bead quantities and placement.


(BTW - good to know - when knit as written it takes approx. 210 beads. Know this before you buy beads. Ahem.)

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I think Tobs will be too.

Happy Tuesday!

PS - I linked the shawl to a nifty Knit-A-Long site. It has a ton of information on how to knit the shawl larger, needle sizes, etc. For those of you who simply want the pattern, you can find it here. Oh yeah, and it's free. =)


6 comments:

Cookie said...

It is BEAUTIFUL! You did a great job, our Megan.

Zonda said...

Great pictures! You iz lucky it was still affixed to the blocking area ;)

Elizabeth said...

Very very nice! Lovely work.

Yarndude said...

Very pretty.

Daniele said...

Gorgeous - you rock Meg!!

Opal said...

gorgeous work. be proud!