Thursday, September 13, 2012

New Project: Starfish Shawl 海星




Project:  Starfish Shawl 海星
Pattern:  Starfish Shawl by Norah Gaughan, published in Knitting Nature
Yarn:  West Valley Alpacas Classic DK yarn
Yardage:  2472 yards in stash
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: September 4 2012

Notes: West Valley Alpacas is a semi-local alpaca farm, about 90 miles from us. A few years ago we used to go to their annual open house to see alpaca shearing, spinning, weaving demos, and of course, buy yarn. This yarn was a very large cone, over 1lb or so. I used a small portion for Box 96 couple of years ago, and really liked working with it. It didn't work out for Elizabeth of York which I planned to knit during the Olympics. I didn't want to give it up just yet, and thought a large shawl with relatively loose gauge would be a much better fit.

Starfish Shawl starts with "Cast on 730 stitches, join, be careful not to twist". After two evenings and many hundreds of counting, the cast on was finally accomplished. Though with all those stitches bunched together, it's still hard to tell if I'm twisted or untwisted. The thing with a shawl like this, I have about eight rows done, does it look like it? Now think about it, if I'm knitting a hat in bulky yarn, I would be done already.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment! 

12 comments:

Babajeza said...

More than 700 stitches? How do you count them and how do you not twist them on a circular needle? It's amazing. :-)

Cathy Johnson said...

So that's what you've been up to casting on 720 sts! You are very brave to start on this, I wouldn't dream of casting on that many stitches AND join! Looks like a fun design though, good luck with it and looking forward to seeing the finished item!

WonderWhyGal said...

Yikes! I don't think I could cast on that many stitches. I am just finishing a project that was 330 stitches. The first time I did it...I did twist and didn't figure it out until I was halfway done. AGGGH! This time all is good but still I am dreading binding off 330 stitches;-)

Carol said...

Good luck with this project - have you calculated how long it will take to finish it? It truly looks like a labor of love.

AllyB said...

You're going to leave me in the weeds with this project. Not casting on that many stitches...ever. LOL I know yours will be stunning when it's finished though. Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Give that little Rascal some pets for me.

Lapdog Creations said...

That looks SO delicate!

Pumpkin said...

That shawl is constructed in a very interesting way (at least from what I can see in the photo), you always pick the prettiest and more interesting projects. I'm sure this is a project worthy of the yarn being used on.

Voie de Vie said...

I do so love that book! Yikes-a-moley though - over 700 stitches? Do you have enough stitch markers to help with the counting? You are a good crafty woman, much better than I. Phew is all I have to say to that. :)

Kathryn Ray said...

That's a whole lot of stitches. I have not cast on that many, but I have in the several hundred range... lots of deep breaths and breaks during the casting on process.

How long did it take you to cast on?

Vivian said...

Babajeza/VdV, I put a marker every 100 stitches during cast on. To set up the pattern there is a marker every 146 stitches. Still a lot of counting, but not as bad as counting all 730 stitches at once.

Andrea, the shawl slowly but surely decreases to the middle, so I don't have to worry about casting OFF 730 stitches!

Carol, I'd say a few months ;-) The stitch pattern is simple, just a lot of stitches.

Vivian said...

Kathryn, two evenings. First tried long tail cast on, didn't work, then switched to knitted cast on and made it to 500 by the end of the night. Next night cast on the rest, and count, and count, and count some more ;-)

Spinster Beth said...

"Cast on 730 stitches?!" Oh my ... you are just awesome!