Behold! My Citron is off the needles. I’ve been working on this lovely shawl with single-minded focus like a woman possessed. I don’t think I’ve touched another project at all since casting this on at the end of March.

citron blocking-2

I thought I would make the 5 repeats called for in the pattern and see how I felt. Then I thought, “Nah, six seems like a better number.” Then I just kept looking around on Ravelry and fell in love with this example. She made seven repeats and added three rows of garter on the edge to prevent some rolling. I am doing the same. On the final ruffle, I knit 9 very long rows, in stockinette, then I switched to garter (knitting on the purl side on row 10) and continued for three rows. This Lotus Mimi mink yarn is soooooooo soft, so why wouldn’t I just keep going and make a larger delightfully cozy shawl? I bound off  on a size 9 needle by knitting two together, slipping that decrease back to the left needle, knitting two together again, slipping back to the left needle again, and continuing in this manner across. Later I remembered seeing somewhere that you k2tog through the back loop instead of a regular k2tog. I don’t know which way looks better, since I only tried one way, but it kept the ruffle nice and loose, so I was happy with it.

If you are increasing the shawl beyond the 5 repeats, you continue to follow the pattern set forth in each repeat. For example, on a sixth repeat on Row 9 you K12, m1 7 times, then k13, m1 9 times, k12, m1 7 times. Then on Row 19 you K13, m1 7 times, k14, m1 8 times, k13, m1 8 times. The pattern is simple in this shawl. On each Row 9 the number of knitted stitches before the m1 goes up by 1 from the row 19 before it and the number of times it is repeated also goes up by one. If you study the pattern, you’ll notice on every Row 9 the outside increases are symmetrical and on Row 19 the one side of the outer increases is higher by one. The center set of increases on Row 9 and Row 19 decreases by one repeat each time, but the number of knitted stitches in each repeat goes up by one each time. I know this sounds like gibberish if you’re not interested in the pattern, but if you feel like making a ton of repeats, seeing the pattern makes it really easy.

I tried to keep track of things by separating my sets of repeats on each increase row with stitch markers. This helped me make sure I was doing the increases correctly without having to count after every single increase row, since these rows go longer and longer! If I was off on the row, that would show when I got to the marker and had a wrong number of stitches. I had to un-knit a row here and there, but at least it was always when I was still on the row, rather than a few rows later.

I used 833.3 yards of this gorgeous Lotus Mimi in orange to get my seven repeats done. That was what I expected after browsing a bunch of finished projects on Ravelry. I absolutely love when people weigh what they have left and try to provide exact yardage. I wasn’t vigilant about this (or even putting things on Ravelry) for earlier projects, but I’m trying to provide more info now. It’s nice to know if I will be able to squeak by on some projects using a little less yarn than called for in the pattern, since most patterns call for whole balls of whatever yarn they’re using, not exact yardage or weight.

Using blocking wires.

I only blocked the straight garter edge of this shawl. Again, thank you Ravelry users for the helpful info posts. Many people say to block very lightly. I didn’t do a full wet blocking like I usually do for most projects. I slipped the edge stitches onto blocking wires, pinned that to the blocking board, misted the straight edge with water, and pressed it down evenly. This was my first time using blocking wires. I tried to pick up the same leg of the stitch each time. I was already happy with the size before blocking. After the blocking the straight edge measures 49″ for me, and the radius (spine?) of the shawl is 22″. I stretched the straight edge out a bit longer, but that was the only change I sought in blocking.

citron blocking-3

If you feel like reading even more knitting content from me, I did a guest post about knitting on YourHobby.co.uk. You can check it out here.

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