Nila At The Wheel
Finished
March 2, 2014
April 5, 2014

Nila At The Wheel

Project info
Cleo at the wheel by edith filzhof
Knitting
Neck / TorsoShawl / Wrap
my sister
Needles & yarn
US 6 - 4.0 mm
Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 Ply
2.25 skeins = 450.0 yards (411.5 meters), 112 grams
Notes

5 April 2014 - finished except for blocking, don’t know when that’s going to happen. I’m reasonably happy with it and very glad I muddled through to having an extra set of B sections--after blocking it’ll be just about a good size!
Unblocked, it is 42cm down the middle, 88cm across at the widest point, and about 80cm each down the sides from the wingtips to the bottom point. I used 1044 beads, if I counted right.
Rubbish pictures only at the minute because it’s dark, but the third one down has the colour pretty good.
The pattern needs some tech editing and a better English translation--the stitch counts are skewed and some of the instructions don’t match between the German and English version (besides some just plain wrong English--I read both). Not holding my breath, though, since the last update is from 2012. Oh well, I like the result, but even though it’s a pretty simple shawl, I wouldn’t recommend a beginner try this unless they’ve the confidence/pig-headedness to work out the mistakes as they go along.

22 March 2014 - halfway through the lace section. There’s a mistake in the chart: on the even rows, it shows an extra purl where section C meets the centre. Also the instruction to read even rows from the other side makes no sense, since it’s folded in half, anyway. Also also the pattern only mentions mirroring A and C on the second half after the centre stitch, but I’ve been mirroring B, as well, and that seems to work.
I was hoping to have this finished so I could pin it out to block while we’re away for a week from tomorrow, but that was clearly not happening even before I decided to take a break to paint my nails…OH WELL.

19 March 2014 (later): made a mistake in the second or third garter stitch row and only noticed on the last row, after I’d worked out all the lace sections with markers ARGH. Ripped it back to the lifeline, so now I’m doing the garter band over from the beginning. This does mean I can decrease the eight extra stitches I’ve ended up with more evenly, though, so it’s not all bad.

19 March 2014 - finished the openwork section, now doing the garter ridges and then hope I’ll end up with the right amount of stitches to start the lace border.

16 March 2014 - lifeline is in, and I will be switching to the threading method for placing beads, because while it takes an age longer and is far less elegant than with a hook, it is a lot easier on the fingers and the yarn. No fraying woohoo!
Row 3 of the openwork should maybe mention in the pattern that when you get to the center stitch, you’ll only have one stitch left before instead of two to ktog; and then accordingly after the center stitch it needs to go yo, k1 before switching to yo, ssk repeats.

15 March 2014 - I have one row of beads wooooooo! It turns out the cheap beads I bought way back in the mists of time are not exactly size 8s, so I’m struggling to get the 0.75mm hook through them backwards with the yarn. Owwwww my fingers and the poor yarn gets frazzled quite a lot. Must remember to put in a lifeline before the next row, because at this rate the openwork portion is already going to take me the better part of a month and fuck doing any of this twice. Looks really pretty though, totally going to be worth it.

12 March 2014 - it’s too small for my liking and since I’ve somehow managed to end up with an even number of stitches and will have to fudge it, anyway, I’ve decided to muddle on and start the openwork at 273 stitches which should give me 309 after the openwork and then 327 after the garter ridge, which should make up A(11)+9xB(16ea)+C(8)+middle stitch(1)+mirrorC(8)+9xmirrorB(16ea)+mirrorA(11) for the beginning of the lace chart.

9 March 2014 - continued working on the 4mm version. I’m 11 rows away from 241 stitches and still seem rather small, so considering adding on, anyway. I’ve got the yarn and the beads for an addition, but should really do the maths properly first.

5 March 2014 - Cast on a second version using 4mm needles as per pattern and it’s obviously working up to a more reasonable size much quicker. Not sure yet if I like the looser body enough to stick with this version, though.

3 March 2014 - so far so good, although the teenietiny yarn on the long straights is doing a number on my fingers, I think. I’m also wondering what multiple of rows I’d have to add to the body for the border to work still because at the minute it just looks like it will turn out very small. I’m thinking I’d need an extra 32 stitches (section B x2), is that right? So the first multiple in rows that would work is 24 for an extra 96 stitches=3x2 section B. Um. That seems like a lot.
I will revisit this when I’ve worked up the initial 241 as per pattern.
********

2 March 2014 - The Stash Reckoning 2014 has begun.

I’m hoping my sister (who likes pink things) will take this off my hands when it’s done; will probably have to twist her arm…

The openwork near the bottom will provide a convenient curtailed trial run for my ‘yo, 2tog’ tolerance for when I eventually make that Shipwreck I have seen in my future.

And would you believe it, I don’t have circulars in the size I need…one day, one day. One day I will start a project for which I already have the needles. Have ordered 3.25mm circs and in the meantime cast on and started on the long 3.25mms I’ve already got, which should keep me in knitting for a good while, since the yarn is TINY. (I say that. It’s probably because I’m just coming off a week’s worth of the Horrible Teal Yarn, which is DK.)

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Finished
March 2, 2014
April 5, 2014
About this pattern
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About this yarn
by Jaeger
Fingering
100% Merino
200 yards / 50 grams

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  • Originally queued: March 1, 2014
  • Project created: March 2, 2014
  • Finished: April 5, 2014
  • Updated: April 8, 2014
  • Progress updates: 4 updates