My Swallowtail is Finished

I cast off and blocked my Swallowtail last night. It was a labor of love. I am really pleased with the results. More photos are on my blog.

fingering Weight?

I am casting on for Swallowtail today and need some advice. I have decided to knit this lovely shawl in Brown Sheep Fingering in Lilac, but I am concerned about being able to do the nupps in this heavier yarn. Has anyone used fingering weight for this? If so, were you happy with the results? I would like a larger, heavier shawl-hence the use of fingering weight. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much, and I have loved seeing everyone else's progress and completed shawls.
Sue J.

Sport Weight

Hi all. I just joined the KAL today. Last night I cast on using Blue Sky Alpaca 100% Alpaca sportweight. Has anyone else knit this shawl with a sport weight yarn? If so how many skeins did you use? I think I must be insane because this is a navy yarn and the stitches are so hard to see. But, I had this yarn in the stash just begging to be knit and I had the urge to knit a shawl. I've looked through the pictures of some of the finished shawls and they are all so pretty.

picking up stitches in garter ridges

Pick up and knit 1 stitch in each of 3 garter ridges.

This was the most difficult part of the pattern for me. I didn't know which part of the "garter ridge" to push the needle through. I'm not certain that I did it correctly but carried on anyway. Does anyone have tips, links or suggestions? TIA

picking up stitches in garter ridges

Pick up and knit 1 stitch in each of 3 garter ridges.

This was the most difficult part of the pattern for me. I didn't know which part of the "garter ridge" to push the needle through. I'm not certain that I did it correctly but carried on anyway. Does anyone have tips, links or suggestions? TIA

picking up stitches in garter ridges

Pick up and knit 1 stitch in each of 3 garter ridges.

This was the most difficult part of the pattern for me. I didn't know which part of the "garter ridge" to push the needle through. I'm not certain that I did it correctly but carried on anyway. Does anyone have tips, links or suggestions? TIA

Rosy Swallowtail

My first post on this KAL! I've finally began my Swallowtail shawl. Long after the first few swallowtails had been casted off. Heres what it looks like currently..

Well... probably a little longer, but not significantly. I'm currently on my 11th repeat of the chart (12 motifs along the side)

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Stats:

Yarn: Handpaintedyarn lace wool in Damask Rose

Needles: 3.5mm addi

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Ok, thats all so far. I might not have posted here before but I do keep watch on this space. Pretty impressed and motivated by your progresses~ Keep up the good work. ;)

Nupping along

Well, I've made it to the second chart of the lily of the valley border and all is well so far. I do wish I'd had some Inox circulars in the correct size, because the addis I'm using are really too blunt for this and are slowing me up big time. But I love the nupps so I'll just keep on wading through. If anyone hasn't started yet, look for some needles with nice pointy tips for this shawl!

Hello Everyone

Hello Everyone

I'm so excited to be here. I am new to knitalongs and fairly new to lace shawl knitting and I'm looking forward to casting on.

I'm going to use Handmaiden Seasilk in colour Berry. I'll post a picture as soon as there is something to see.

Finished Shawl

Here's my finished shawl. I used Zephyr Wool-Silk in Indigo. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and can definitely see knitting it again. More pictures can be found over at my blog, Close to my Heart.

Hello

I'm new to this blog, but I've already finished 2 swallowtails so far... I'm itching to start another one, but I haven't made up my mind as to what yarn to use. I know I want to use a thicker yarn than sock yarn, so maybe Cascade 220 or use a sock yarn, but then add a lot more repeats... or 2 strands of Zephyr (as I did with my Seraphim shawl)

First Swallowtail (2 separate posts with lotsa pics)

Second Swallowtail

Cheers Eva

Nupps help idea

I googled "nupps" and discovered this website The Knitting Doctor For purling 5 stitches together, she suggests the helpful idea of "pushing the stitches down to the cable part of the circular needle, then purling them together." So far this has worked out great for me.

Blocking

I finished my shawl last weekend, but as I was away all week the blocking had to wait. It was however one of my first tasks this weekend. Finished Object Pictures coming soon!

I just finished my first Swallowtail. Although the nupps gave me some trouble ( I wish I had joined this KAL before I started doing the nupps, great suggestions here), I will likely make this pattern again.



more pictures at my blog: smatterings

So far so good

I've tinked back, and did a complete, and correct, pattern repeat. Thanks to all who helped. Now ... one more question ... do you knit in the lifeline, or just weave it through with a yarn needle?

Help Needed

Here's the beginnings of my Swallowtail. I am using Just Our Yarn "Myne" . It 's a hand painted cashmere that is really wonderful to work with. My only problem is that this yarn is much finer than the yarn called for in the pattern. As a result I will be knitting a few extra repeats. For those of you who have finished the shawl, do you mind telling me what percentage of the overall top width dimension the border is? I'm trying to figure out how many extra repeats I need to do. Thanks! There are more details on my blog.

Completed awaiting to be blocked!

I had finally finished my swallow tail shawl. So happy about it as it is the first time I knit a shawl. It took me about 1 month and a week (on and off working on it) to complete.

Here is a pix of my shawl.



Now I have to move on to block my shawl. Any one has any tips on how to block the shawl? I do not have any experience in blocking. Thanks :)

Edging Tips?

I'm almost ready to start the edging. Any tips or anything I should be aware of regarding the edging, other than the nupps alternative?

Help!

On this my 5th pattern repeat, I screwed up. I have 38 stitches on one side of the marker, 34 on the other. How did this happen?

It would help to know how many stitches should be on each row -- does anyone know how many are increased every other row so I can count back?

And ... I've read about "lifelines" -- what are they? Where can I find one? Do they work at the office? In relationships? (hee hee)

Starting First Shawl

I just started my shawl last night. This is my first lace knitting project. The yarn I using is Classic Elite's Inca Alpaca and size 7 needles. To make sure I don't goof up too much with the pattern, I find that I end up counting my stitches every other row. I'm really happy to find a knitalong for this shawl.

Abby

Beginning 'Tail

Here's the start! The yarn is 100% alpaca, size 4 needles. I bought it last weekend at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival and I just love how soft it is. The knitting seems to be going quite quickly, and I can't wait to get home from the office to keep going.

Fits and Starts

Hello. I started my Swallowtail last night and got to the 5th repeat of the second chart and realized that I had way too many stitches--I should have been paying more attention to the shawl and less to The Amazing Race; I tried frogging it but it just wasn't working out so I re-cast and worked through the second chart once--putting it down while I still felt confident.

This is, for all intents and purposes, my first lace project so it will be quite a learning experience. I have really enjoyed watching all of your projects progress, thanks for the ideas and commentary!

Here's my start

This is about 2 evenings worth of knitting, so I think this is going to go pretty quickly, at least until I get to the edging. I've done 10 repeats of the 2nd chart. Sorry the photo is so bad. This is Alpaca Cloud laceweight from Knitpicks in the Sand color on size 3 needle.

Finished!

Here's my Swallowtail Shawl finished. It took 9 days. I did the nupps on 2 mm dpns, it was the only way I could do it. When I was in the middle of the nupps I swore never again!, but it's such a cute little shawl, and perfect for gifts, so I'm pretty sure I'll be making more of these!

The yarn I used is a 2-ply merino called Duo from Design Club dk. It made a very crisp shawl when blocked. It has 540 meters/100 grams, which is heavier than the alpaca the pattern suggests (400 yd/50 g?), so I thought perhaps my shawl would be quite a bit bigger, but I don't think it did. I used a little more than 50 grams for my shawl.

This picture shows where I was when I put it down last night. I'm knitting this in Zephyr Wool-Silk in the Indigo colour. The yarn has been in my stash for a year or so, don't know what possessed me to purchase such a dark colour lace weight yarn! I think it will look nice with jeans though.

I'm enjoying knitting this pattern. I'm thankful for lifelines though, because even though the pattern so far is fairly simple, I must loose my concentration or something, as I've had to frog a couple times.

I have two pattern repeats left in the first chart, so I just may get to those Nupps today. I've never done them before, so wish me luck!

I finished my shawl

Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, Interweave Knits Fall 06
Yarn: Løve Kido Multi (71% mohair, 29% polyamid, 25g/240m). Alltogether 44 g.
Knitting needles: 5 mm
Measurement: 85 cm / 177 cm

Some more pictures in my blog www.kadentaidot.blogspot.com

Hi shawl knitters

Hi, I just joined to knit the shawl with you.

I have already started it and I chose Multi Kido yarn (71% Mohair, 29% Polyamid, 25 g / 240 m). I have three balls of that yarn and by now I have used only 11 grams from the first ball (12th figure from the first pattern on the needles). I have been wondering if the shawl could be done any bigger by making more of the first pattern. I just don't know what would be the correct stitch amount when the next patterns could stil be done without any mistakes. I hope I could write this on understandable way while my English isn't so clear (I'm Finnish). Have you ever noticed this shawl in different size than in the magazine is shown.

Secret swallowtail

I started my Swallowtail last night. It's going to be a birthday present for my aunt who reads my regular blog, so I can only blog about it here! She does know I'll be knitting something for her though, because she has helped me pick out some colors she likes, one petrol and one cyclamen. I started last night using the petrol coloured fingering weight alpaca, and managed six repeats before I read an e-mail from her that said if I planned to knit her something to wear with her winter coat she would prefer it to be the cyclamen colour. So I frogged, and started again, and have finished the first six repeats again. The cyclamen yarn is a Danish 2-ply fingering weight merino called Duo.

Edited to answer a question about the yarn: Duo is a yarn from the Danish company Design Club DK. The yardage is 510 meters/100 g. There is a merino-silk blend available too. Duo is available online from a number of Danish webshops, as well as the Norwegian site Pinnsvindesign. I know that Pinnsvindesign takes international orders, and parts of their site is translated into English.