The Nina Shawl

I finished the shawl on Saturday afternoon, just before the in-laws arrived for a two night visit. This is the first thing I've knit from cotton besides a few dishcloths and I have to say I love the feeling of the cotton. It is a little heavy, but it has a nice drape to it. I love the way cotton feels against my skin. It is not scratchy at all. It's too warm to use it here - but cool weather will come soon hopefully.

This was my first project that I've finished that has a Fair Isle section too (the white and blue checkerboard pattern on each end). I can't say it's my favorite technique, but it wasn't too hard. I am now encouraged to pick up the two projects I put down long ago when I got to the Fair Isle section in each of them. Hopefully I can finish those this year too.

I liked the pattern overall because it was easy. I didn't really check my gauge, but I came out about the same for the width of the shawl that the pattern specified. But the length was a whole different story. I could tell after knitting a couple of the stripe sections that my shawl was not going to end up being the 60 inches that the pattern promised.

So I added at least 72 rows into the stripes at various points along the way and ended up with a shawl that is 68 inches from ruffle to ruffle. Overall I am please with the length I ended up with; I can easily wrap up in it. I ended up doing the ruffle in the bright green color. The ruffle should have been blue according to the pattern layout, but I ran out of blue since I made the shawl longer.

I was able to get a few rows of the blue in at the beginning of the ruffle though. The ruffle on one end was knit by picking up stitches from the cast on edge. You can see (on the right side - where the blue meets the light green) how I ended up with twisted stitches when I picked up stitches for the ruffle. The left side shows the other ruffle that didn't require picking up stitches. It may be strange but I like the "detail" of the twisted stitches - I should have done it on both sides .


Project Info
Pattern: Nina Shawl by Phyllis Howe
from Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: King Tut Cotton
color: #500 blue (2 skeins), #2750 ivory (1 skein),
1042 light green (3 skeins), #2560 bright green (3 skeins)
each skein: 100 grams / 182 yards
Needles: addi TURBO - US# 7 (4.5 mm)
Notes: added more than 72 rows to the original pattern in various points of the striping pattern and the finished shawl is only 8 inches longer than the finished length stated in the pattern
Finished Length: 68 inches
Finished Width: 23 inches
Date Started: July 19, 2007
Date Finished: August 25, 2007