Shawl #7 of 2011. Made with my own handspun yarn in fingering weight. 2 colorways of FreckleFaceFiber’s SWM. Took me 2 tries to get the logic of this very easy shawl with a pattern that is not always exactly clear to me as a reader. Did BO with needles 2 sizes larger. Nice edge.

Next time, to make things easier:
In the stockinette section, put in a marker every 10 stitches. This makes checking your stitch count a zillion times faster when you get to the lace part. Also, use markers at the center 5 stitches that do not match the ones for every ten stitches. This stops you from confusing yourself as you go, but lets you see where to increase at the center section.

In the lace section, remove all the markers you placed for every ten stitches as you do the first row of the lace. Leave in only the markers for the center 5 stitches and a marker 1 stitch in from each end to remind you to do the KFB stitch at each end. The designer does not suggest these markers, but they helped me a lot. In this row, you will also place additional markers as the designer directs.

This means you will have a marker one stitch in from the first edge (not suggested by the designer), followed by the marker the designer tells you to place just before the 1st section of feather -and-fan repeats begin. Your shawl will be growing every row between these first 2 markers.

Next comes the first feather-and-fan repeats, which end near the center. The shawl does not grow wider in the section of feather-and-fan repeats. The designer suggests you place a marker at the end of these repeats.

The section after this marker is where the shawl gets wider every other row on the first side of the center just before the central 5 stitches. At the end of this will be your own marker (not suggested by the designer) just before the actual center 5 stitches; every other row you’ll add a YO right before this marker.

Next come the actual center 5 stitches.

After the center 5 stitches, you’ll have your marker (not suggested by the designer) to mark the end of the center 5 stitches. You add a YO after this marker every other row. Then you knit on to the next marker suggested by the designer.

So next will be the marker the designer told you to place at the end of the center area where the shawl is growing wider every other row AFTER the central 5 stitches. After this marker, you’ll be doing the feather-and-fan repeats again.

Now you do the second section of feather-and-fan repeats. The shawl does not get any extra stitches or grow any wider in this area of feather-and-fan. At the end of this section of feather-and-fan repeats, you place another marker, as suggested by the designer. This marks the end of the repeats section and shows the beginning of the final section of each row. This section will grow by one stitch every row, thanks to the KFB done on the second-to-last stitch of the row. I also place a marker just before the very last stitch of the row to remind me to make that KFB stitch each time. The designer does not suggest this, but it reminds me.

After you do row one and two, you get to Row 3, the actual first row with the feather-and-fan pattern. On this row, I added markers at the beginning of each actual repeat. Each repeat has 18 stitches total. Six repeats on each side of the central 5 stitches, if you are using the designer’s suggested stitch count of 229 stitches at the end of the stockinette section. On Row Four, I count stitches in each repeat between my markers for each repeat to make sure I am getting 18 per repeat.

When you get to row 5, you just begin repeating rows 1-4, but you don’t have to place any markers this time around (or ever again) for row one. So row one now is basically a row of knitting, with a KFB on the second and the second-to-last stitches. On this row, you also do a YO right before and after your own markers that show the central 5 stitches.

On Row 2, you knit all the stitches in the sections where the shawl is growing, and you purl all the stitches in the two feather-and-fan repeat sections. You again do a KFB on the second and the second-to-last stitches, so the shawl grows only at its outer edges on this row.

For Row 3, you do a KFB on the second and second-to-last stitches, a YO before and just after the central 5 stitches. You also do the feather-and-fan pattern sections in the actual feather-and-fan stitch pattern. So this row grows at the edges and also around the central 5 stitches. And it repeats the K2TOG and YO-K1 pattern that makes the actual feather and fan. But the feather-and-fan sections themselves never grow. The shawl grows at its edges every row and on each side of its center every other row.

And Row 4 is a solid, easy knit-them-all row, with KFB at the second and second-to-last stitches.

A very unique skein of handspun that needed to be knitted.