Thoughts on Ene’s Scarf: It's too much work!

During my week in the mountains I finally finished my Ene's Scarf. And, if I do say so myself, it is a beautiful shawl and will make a lovely gift - unless I keep it for myself.

The Nancy Bush pattern printed in Scarf Style from Interweave Press begins with casting on 375 stitches with the yarn held double. I didn’t realize that until I started to knit. It is a bottom up pattern and I’ve always done top down. I was ready to quit before I started! 375 stitches!

I started out with blue lace weight yarn but the 375 little stitches in blue lace weight yarn are very difficult to see on KnitPicks Harmony wood needles. The 750 strands of yarn, scrunched together on the needle were impossible to see against the variegated colors of the wood needles – especially when knitting in the evening with my older eyes. I started over with heavier yarn, Elsebeth Lavold’s silky wool.

My suggestions for a beautiful Ene:

Cast on with a larger needle. I knit the shawl with a size 6 needle but cast on with size 7. Cast on rows tend to be a little tight and I needed a little give. Using a larger needle for the cast on also allowed me to block the edging to a sharp point rather than to a soft curve. The edging, with the candle flame like points, is what sets the Ene apart as a beautiful scarf.

When casting on, I placed markers every 25 stitches and counted each time I placed one. I also placed a hook-on marker in stitch 188, the half way point.

The first row sets up the pattern and the only way to make sure to get it right is to count and count again. There is nothing to look at to tell you if you have miscounted or not. I put a marker in every double decrease and counted to make sure there were 14 stitches in each pattern repeat. And counted again. I used a 41 inch circular needle. After the first row was knitted I laid it out flat, noted where I thought the center was and matched up markers on each side to make sure it really was symmetrical and I hadn’t ended up with 12 repeats on one side and 10 on the other. That would have been very easy to do. Fortunately, with the marker in the center stitch, I got it right the first time.

Chart 1: The outer border of the shawl, is not difficult, indeed after the first two rows, the pattern is visible and mistakes would be easy to catch if they were not hidden in the sheer mass of 375 stitches. Just keep an eye on the yarn overs and all will be well.

Chart 2 is very easy, four rows of garter stitch, followed by a row of yarn overs and knit 2 togethers, followed by four more rows of garter stitch. But watch out for the additional decreases in three of its ten rows.

Chart 3: Enjoy! The rows are getting shorter fast and the knitting is easier. Just enough concentration is required. Although chart 3 is 23 rows, it is really just two different stitch patterns, each with two alternating sets of three for a 6 stitch repeat. I counted out the pattern to myself as I knit and checked myself by saying it backwards on the purl row. I sometimes dropped a yarn over or became distracted and knit one of the three-stitch halves of the repeat twice. But any mistake was easy to see. The double decrease sits neatly in the middle of a set of three stitches, either between 2 knit 1s or between 2 yarn overs.

Bind off: This is wonderful! I had never done a three needle bind off before and was thrilled. It came together easily and perfectly!

If I were to do it again…

I’d pull out Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles, pick a nice lace pattern for the body of the shawl, start at the top and when I had the right number of stitches add the two borders from Charts 1 and 2. No more casting on 375 stitches for me!

Finally, why is it called a scarf?

According to Merriam-Webster on-line the difference between a shawl and a scarf is subtle:

Scarf: A length or square of fabric worn around the neck or head. Probably based on Old Northern French escarpe, probably identical with Old French excharpe ‘pilgrim’s scrip’.
Shawl: A piece of fabric warn by women over the shoulders or head or wrapped around a baby. From Urdu or Persian, probably from Shaliat, a town in India.

The Ene is a shawl.

Ene’s Scarf: I’m half way!

I stuck out the Ene, didn’t frog it after all. I figured out where I made mistakes, decided they didn’t show and carried on.

I’m halfway done! Thank you to Madorville for showing us how to figure out what percentage of a triangle we have already knitted. Her excel spread sheet is very useful if you are wondering whether you have enough yarn. She uses the Ene as an example and reports that Row 55, the last knit row of the first time through Chart 3, is the half way point. The rows are gradually getting shorter, the pattern is easier. I can see the triangle taking shape from the double decreases running down the middle.

Now this is pleasurable knitting. There is an easy rhythm to the stitches, alternating three stitch repeats. It requires just enough attention to be interesting without being frustrating. I can relax and feel the steady flow of yarn through my fingers. This is the knitting I have in mind when I say I like to knit. In my mind’s eye I see myself one with a long line of women knitting through the centuries, sitting quietly in a sunny window, our needles moving smoothly as something beautiful takes form from the yarn in our hands. This is the way knitting should be.

I might be tempted to check Madorville's formula at the end of each knitting session, to be ever mindful of my progress, of how much longer I must knit before I will be done. But I won't! This time I refuse to rush in anticipation of reaching the end, anxious to begin the next project. I’m going to let go of my timetables and let the knitting set its own pace. I’ve worked hard to get to this point in my Ene journey. I’m going to savor it.

Ene's Shawl - to frog or not to frog

I am knitting Ene’s Scarf as part of a Ravelry knit along. And I’d like to quit.

The scarf starts with a horrible 375 stitch cast on! Yuck. It took what seemed like forever but I carefully counted out the cast on stitches, placing a marker after every 25 stitches. When I was done I double checked, so going into the first row I knew I had the correct number of stitches. The first row is full of double decreases. Again, I counted carefully, placed markers after every pattern repeated and at the end of the row checked carefully that there were the same number of markers on each side of the center stitch. Everything worked out.

The scarf begins with a 22 row lower edge in a simple diamond pattern. The rows are so long, it took quite a lot of knitting before I could see the pattern taking shape. No instant gratification here. Eventually I had the 22 rows knitted without too much unknitting. I counted it out as I went and knew when I’d made a mistake in time to correct it within the row. But with a 375 stitch row, if I discovered a problem because the count didn’t work out when I arrived at the center stitch, and the problem was toward the beginning of the row, there was a lot of unknitting to get back to fix it.

When I got to the end of the diamond border I realized I was one stitch off on each side of the center stitch. It was perfectly symmetrical. I’d made the same mistake on both sides. I think I missed a decrease on either side of the center stitch about 8 rows back. It looked fine, wasn’t throwing the pattern off so I decided to fix it in the very straightforward 10 row chart that followed. This chart is 9 rows of garter stitch with a yarn over knit 2 together row in between. However, there were also some decreases at the beginning and end of the rows. As simple as the second chart was, I made more errors and had 2 extra stitches on one side and 1 extra on the other. I’ll blame it on the long rows again. By the time I’d get to the end of the row, I’d forgotten what I’d planned when I began the row. Fortunately, these are the rows in which errors can be compensated for without throwing the pattern off and I ended chart 2 with the right number of stitches on both sides of the center stitch.

You’d think I’d be eager to go on to chart 3 and finish this shawl. The rows are getting shorter. I’m down to 313 stitches from the original 375. Chart 3 continues for the bulk of the shawl, the rows getting shorter and shorter all the while. So, once I get the hang of the new pattern, finishing should be easier than what I’ve done so far. In fact some knitters have called it boring.

So, why am I not eager to keep going? I don’t like the fact that I compensated for mistakes instead of correcting them. And I’m not sure I like my yarn. Yes, I know a lace shawl always looks like a crumpled mess before it is blocked. And other knitters have used the same yarn and been happy. I know this yarn will make a warm cozy scarf when it’s done. But the real problem is, I really don’t like a bottom up triangle shawl. The long lower edge is just so unruly I’m not convinced about the finished product.

I’m not going to quit! The way I see it, my choices are to frog it all and start over in another yarn or stick it out and finish this one. It would probably go much easier the second time around and I do have some beautiful slightly variegated merino lace that would be perfect for this pattern. But I really don’t want to cast on those 375 stitches all over again. I guess I’ll take a break and then later today, lay what I’ve already done out flat, pin and try to see what the yarn will look like blocked, make sure my mistakes really aren’t visible, and decide what to do next.