Mona's Knitting Room

I made several faroese shawlettes for Christmas presents this year. The pattern was designed by Claudia at Countrywool and is very simple and yet elegant, especially when made with a luscious yarn like Mountain Colors Mountain Goat (55% mohair, 45% wool). The pattern calls for a single hank of yarn, which I knit with US #10.5 needles. When the knitting is complete, the garment is very small and lumpy and looks like a failure. After washing and blocking, though, it grows and smooths out very nicely. To block the wet garment, I used two blocking wires along the inside, neck edge, one on each side, and positioned them in a V shape. I then pinned along the wires to stretch this edge as much as possible. The remainder of the shawl I simply pushed into shape with my hands. Here's a picture of the finished shawlette:


Closeup of the design detail:


The pattern doesn't specify a specific cast on technique. With the first shawlette, I used a long tail cast on. I didn't realize in advance that the knit portion of the shawlette is reversible and so I didn't really like the cast on edge when the garment was completed. As a result, for the second shawlette I used a crochet cast on, which I really liked. I also modified the pattern slightly to perform a twisted slip stitch at the beginning of every row (with yarn in front, slip first stitch as if to purl; move yarn to back). The slip stitch edging combined with the crochet cast on made a nice chain border around the entire shawlette. Here's a closeup of the design modification:


Now that the holidays are over, I'd like to knit one of these for myself :)