Birita is done! Huzzah. I am pretty sure I would have finished this sooner if I hadn’t been sure I would run out of yarn. To recap; this pattern calls for 2 balls {500 yds} of Icelandic Laceweight yarn. Including a fancy crochet border. I purchased 3 balls of the yarn well before 2018 {the shop closed in 2018!} and then an additional partial ball when it became clear I would not have enough yarn. I cast on this project in 2019 and completed my first ball of yarn @ row 30, my second ball @ row 65. Frogged the project and cast on again last month…. the third ball was completed @ row 110 and finished the other 100-ish rows with the fourth ball. All in all I used 995.2 yards with a scant 3 inch tail at cast on and 9 grams {49.2 yards} left of fourth partial ball. I neither crochet nor had enough yarn for the fancy scalloped border but if you want to do either a fringe or crochet border you will obviously need a 5th ball.
Currently my shawl is laid out on my bed drying. I didn’t pin it out with wires or anything. The yarn softened significantly although I did enjoy working with its scrunchy wool handle. It is thick and thin and I used spit splicing along the way. I was thinking of gifting this project to my mom but now that I am over the stress of finding a source for this yarn in this color I am super happy with the finished project.
I am participating in a secret swap-along for an online group I belong to and have cast on my next project which is another pair of Elegant Gauntlets from Sally Melville’s The Purl Stitch. I have knit this project numerous times as gifts and it is fairly quick and easy. There are errors in the pattern. Namely the sizing is due to gauge changes. XRX was using a chart method to depicting gauge, yarn, needles etc at the time. I think it was the beginning of using what was termed the Japanese method of pattern writing. XRX had a few articles on the graphic representation of not only the patterns schematic but also the information required to follow the pattern. On page 29 of the book we read:
The vitals column that accompanies every pattern is loaded with information, replacing a whole lot of words that can make knitting patterns look like no-fun text books…. Their most important function may be to make knitting a universal language.
As far as I recall, XRX and Knitter’s magazine was on the forefront of presenting patterns in this manner in the US.
There are two sizes S-M (L-XL) which corresponds to a circumference of 8 1/2 (10)”. The gauge is given as being 24 (28) per 4″ and the needles suggested are 2.75 for S-M and 3.25 for M-L. You can see the error in a couple of different ways. Usually one decreases the needle size if they want to increase the number of stitches but their chart shows the 24 sts being obtained with the smaller needles and the 28 sets being obtained with the larger needles. This is backwards. The second area an error stands out is in the gauge itself. If you cast on 60 stitches and are getting 24 sts per 4 inches you will get a finished circumference of 10 inches but that is the gauge required for the small size. And it follows that if you get the gauge required for the large size you will end up with the circumference for the smaller arm warmers. Many knitters at the time complained that the size small was too large and the large size was too small. The issue is not necessarily the sizing but more the transposition of numbers for gauge. If you have read reviews on sizing that kept you from knitting this project rest assured that all you need to do is switch the suggested gauge and cast on. It is honestly a lovely project and there were a couple of years where my coworkers asked me to make them ‘sock arms’
yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka
