The 🦢 Wild Swan Shawl 🦢 is officially 🎉🎉COMPLETE🎉🎉
… and it’s definitely one of my favorite pieces so far 😊
Final Section
After my last post, I only had one section of the pattern left (section G) before binding off. There was an option to end after any WS row in that section, but I thought I might as well use as much yarn as possible 🤷, so I just went through the rest of the pattern without ending early.
The last section was simple repeats of lots of yarn-overs and decreases (below).
This is what produced the many “feathers” at the outer edge of the shawl.
Binding Off
The bind-off turned out a bit funky for me, but I think it came out fine in the end.
On the tips of each of the feathers, there were three picots (small, large, small) to accentuate the tips.
I hadn’t done those before, but the idea is essentially that you cast-on some number of stitches and then immediately bind them off, creating a mini-lump of yarn in the middle of the bind-off. It took me a few tries to get it to look right. I for sure was doing them wrong on the first few. Those were side-shifted by 1 st. I don’t think it turned out to be super noticeable with all the rest of the intricacy, but definitely sad about that 😔
After binding off and weaving in ends, this is what the shawl looked like before blocking:
Blocking
For a piece like this, where the geometry is a primary feature, the blocking is a very satisfying step.
Here’s a few pictures of the blocking:
I knew, from a triangular shawl I’d done previously, that the blocking was necessary to shape it properly. My main aims with the blocking were the following:
- Stretch out the shawl overall
- Make the lace-work pop more, from to the soaking/drying
- Emphasize the 🌙crescent-shape🌙 by up-turning the corners
- Accentuate the feathers by stretching them out by the tips
Once I pinned everything down and adjusted the shape, the crescent pretty much came out by itself 😊
I do still want to pick apart some of the visual elements (like the leaf/feather parts), so I may post again about it.
Anyway, I have to get back to my Aran sweater. Still have a sleeve left there… 😬
Mihir the Cable Guy 