I was looking for a beanie with some cabling, and this one really has a nice look!
I’m planning on making two of them in different colors, but first is gray.
Example Project
The plan was to make on in a nice gray color, so that the cables would be more visible. Initially, I was going to get the same yarn brand as mentioned in the pattern, but turns out they are in Europe and don’t ship to the US.
However I found a user project on Ravelry that had the color I wanted. Also it had the same yarn material composition as the pattern, which is something I wanted.
Since my previous post, I (very slowly and tediously) sat down and wove all of the ends in.
That part wasn’t too difficult, but there were quite a few loose ends due to the multi-part nature of the sweater.
Neckband
I had been considering whether I should undo the neckband bind-off since it came out a bit tight. I ended up deciding not to re-open it and just let it stay as it was. That turned out to be a good decision because the collar loosened a bit over time! Even though it’s still somewhat tight, it’s not difficult to get my head through anymore. And also the tightness of the collar actually makes the fit more snug overall, which I think is a good feature for a sweater to have 👍
The pattern also called for the neckband to be folded and sewn down, but I just did this with the yarn itself and it turned out pretty well!
Final Thoughts
This was definitely a fun project and very straightforward to follow!
The pattern document itself was very well-written and nicely formatted too.
Also, since the cable patterns here aren’t very difficult, it’s a good project for beginners to get into cables.
I haven’t posted at all yet this year! Can you believe it??
In the meantime, I was slooooowly getting the seaming done, and now I’m nearly finished!
While I was getting the seaming done, I was a bit worried about whether my pace was even. Also the sleeve cuffs seemed like they might end up too tight, but I’d say everything turned out fine.
Remaining Steps
Weave in Ends
Lots of loose ends to weave in and hide in the mesh…
Not too difficult, but far from my favorite part of any project 😩
Fix Neckband
When I finished the last knitting step and bound up the neckband, I didn’t do it very loosely. So now the collar is a bit tight, and I may have to reopen it (snip ✂️ snip ✂️).
The neckband is also supposed to be folded inwards and sewed to its bottom, so that it becomes half its current height. But I think this will be difficult to do with the bind-off being tight, and it’ll probably make the collar even tighter. However, I’ll push off the decision on reopening the neckband until I’m done weaving in the rest of the ends.
Almost There!
Time to weave in those ends!
Here’s hoping I don’t procrastinate again and end up posting months from now… 🤞
Once again, it has been some time since my last post!
The separate pieces of the Aran sweater had been sitting around while I procrastinated the seaming.
But with December ending soon, I’m hoping to get it done within the year 🫡
I’ve just completed the seaming for (almost) all of the slanted boundaries where the raglan-style sleeves link up with the main front/back pieces. One seam (the back-left) is left open to be seamed later on.
Here’s what it looks like now:
Now things are a bit tidier since all 4 pieces are connected up into a single item.
There are still loose ends everywhere though 🥲 gonna be fun weaving those in at the end.
Seam Technique
I think my seaming generally comes out okay, but I could definitely work on that in the future.
To be honest, I’m not even sure I do it correctly, but I like the way the slanted boundary came out here so… 🤷♂️
Neckband / Collar
One of the last steps is making the neckband, which needs to be done to all the pieces at once.
That involves picking up the stitches that had been left on stitch holders, as well as picking up new stitches from any closed/cast-off edges.
I started on that and have done a bit of it, so hopefully that part will be done in a few days.
After that little neckband digression, the last part will be to seam everything up and weave in ends.
Then I’ll finally be free from this project and done with the year 😭
It has been a while… but I’ve returned to finish up the Aran sweater I’ve been working on!
I was a bit distracted with the Swan Shawl project that I picked up in the meantime 😅
All Pieces Complete
I finished the 2nd sleeve, so now all of the pieces of the sweater are complete!
I considered washing and blocking the parts to make them fit the measurements, but I was a bit worried that it might end up stretching it out and making the sweater baggy. The pieces already seemed to have the right measurements, so I felt that washing was unnecessary. So I ended up just pinning them to confirm they were the right size and make them fit the measurements neatly.
Last Steps
All that’s left to do now is seam all of the pieces together.
That’s definitely my least favorite part of the project 😔 might take me a few attempts.
Oh and I also have to knit the neckband to finish up once everything is connected up.
Here’s one last retrospective post on the 🦢 Wild Swan Shawl 🦢 pattern I just completed!
One of the major visual motifs in the pattern is the reoccurring “feather” seen here:
Let’s pick apart the individual stitches that make this pattern so striking and picturesque!
Hard Lines
There are two places where we see a hard border, which creates the outline and shape of the feather:
Outside shape of the feather
Inner section at the center
Both of these are created using decreases (k2tog and skp).
Knitting 2 stitches into 1 creates a line which is distinctly heavier than the surrounding stitches.
Also, we see that the direction of those decreases is towards the center of the feather.
This creates the desired curvature of the feather’s outline as the stitches lean in the desired direction.
And finally the feather is “closed” at the top by a double-decrease (sk2p) which collapses the left and right borders into a single stitch, creating the “point” at the top of the feather. Note that this same “closing” stitch is used to complete the inner section in the same way.
Inner Gaps
Yarn-overs are used here to great effect, as they provide a looser “hollow” texture to the inside of the feather.
Since decreases were used to created the hard lines, as mentioned above, there is, of course, a need for increases to prevent the feather from shrinking after every row. The specific choice of yarn-overs, as opposed to another less “holey” increase, creates the holes inside the feather and produces a notable internal pattern, rather than a simpler “filled-in” texture. Specifically in the inner “mini-feather”, the use of double yarn-overs makes the center feel very open and airy, as there is a larger gap between the two decreases.
The double yarn-over in the center is directly adjacent to the surrounding decreases, so the inner section is “self-contained in that sense. The increases are done immediately next to the decreases, so the rest of the feather is unaffected.
Outward Flare
Note that there are also yarn-overs happening just outside of the “mini-feather”. These yarn-overs are increases intended to balance the decreases forming the outline of the overall feather.
Since these yarn-overs happen away from the outline decreases, the knit stitches in-between have a distinct slant towards the outline of the feather. This is because the outline decreases are “eating” the knit stitches, pulling the knit stitches towards them, causing an outward “flare”. The new stitches that replace the “eaten” ones are produced in the center, which further accentuates the inner “mini-feather”, as the hard inner lines are boldened by the yarnover gaps on either side of them.
Major Takeaways
Reflecting on the construction of the feather, I can imagine using the same idea to produce any other self-contained shape as desired. Just use those decreases (k2tog and skp/ssk) to form a hard outer border. Perhaps also use them to make lines inside the shape. Then just supplement those with increases to balance the decreases. Yarn-overs can be used as the increases to produce holes and add texture.
I shall keep this in mind in the future… Thank you for the lesson, Swan Shawl 🤝
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… 😬
✨ TODAY ✨, we’re drilling down on one of the design features of the swan shawl.
Since the design is somewhat advanced, I thought it would be useful to examine one of the design features in more detail. That way, we can understand what makes it look a certain way. Maybe I can even use it in one of my own designs (someday…)
Let’s get started!
Textured Slant
Here’s a section of the shawl including the pattern in question:
Now this is the specific part I want to talk about:
Notice the following:
Border on left-side, of a right-slanting sequence of stitches
Main body containing a filler texture, visually similar to moss stitch
The Pattern
Here’s the chart (taken from the pattern), which produces that textured slant:
Stitch Key
These are the stitches of import:
Cable 1 st rightward over 2 sts
BUT instead of k’ing the 2 underlying sts individually, k2tog them
Result is a single-strand cable moving rightward, with a simultaneous decrease of 1 st (3 → 2).
Knit 1 into next st, but don’t drop the knit st yet
Purl 1 into the same st, and then drop the previous st
Result is a increase of 1 st
Knit next 2 sts together, producing 1 new st
Result is a right-slanting decrease of 1 st
How It Works
Now… let’s talk about how this combination of stitches produces what we saw above 🤔
Here’s the textured slant section again:
Slanted Border (on left)
The left border of the section is something similar to a single-strand cable moving rightward.
Here’s the stitch again:
Here’s a better picture of what’s happening:
This cable causes a decrease of 1 stitch, so we start with 3 sts and end with 2. Of the starting 3, the left-most “hops” all the way right, over the other 2. The other 2 get knit together and scrunched into the center. So the left-most disappears, making the cable have an overall rightward slant.
Since this pattern continues, and we’ve decreased 1 of the original 3 stitches, we need a new stitch. So the next stitch to the right of the cable gets “eaten” and used to continue the cable’s rightward “hop”. The result is a nice rightward slanting border.
Main Texture
To the right of the border is the main body of the texture.
The stitch combination produces a “busy” effect similar to that of the moss stitch, where there are horizontal and vertical clashing to produce a sort of repeated chaos.
This is achieved by alternating the following two stitches:
The stitch count balances out by alternating these two:
Increase by 1 st using KP
Decrease by 1 st using k2tog
The characteristic V shape or the KP’s knit st produces slanted lines
The purled part of the KP inserts a horizontal bar, adding to the texture
The k2tog also produces adjacent slants
On top of that, the pattern of repeated [KP, k2tog] is continually “walking” rightwards, as the aforementioned slanted border keeps “eating” stitches and thus pushing everything to the right. This adds an alternating aspect to the texture, since the stitches in a single column are forced to alternate, which is similar to how the moss stitch works.
Final Thoughts
I haven’t seen a cable like the one above, where it “eats” stitches and steadily walks in one direction. It definitely produces a nice effect, so I’ll keep that in mind for the future. Also, the body of the texture is pretty straightforward once you get used to those stitches, but it shows that simply alternating a couple of different-looking stitches can easily result in a visually-interesting and “busy” filler texture.
Anyway, I’m close to finishing the shawl, so I’ll report back soon on that 😊
According to the pattern PDF, I’m at about 68% progress!
The pattern is split into sections labelled A through G, and I’ve just started chart F.
At this point, there’s an option to switch to a larger needle size, and I did choose to do that. I had been mildly worried about whether there would be a lot of leftover yarn, so this would be a good way to make use of more. Also, the gradient from light to dark blue happens over the whole yarn, so using more of it would show off more of that gradient as the shawl would end on a darker shade.
Speaking of gradients… the gradient FINALLY started showing up, which you can (kinda) see in the picture.
It looks like the color transition is going to come out pretty well 😊
That’s all for now — Will report back later with updates!
Mihir the Cable Guy 