198 Yards of Hell

Well - I did promise....

I saw this 'shawlette' (hate that word!) in the shop of my friend Julia (am I beginning to sound like Poirot?) mes amis, and Julia gave me a copy of the pattern (which is freely available on Ravelry).


I bought the the yarn that they had used, which was Rowan's LIMA, which is NOT what the pattern suggests. This yarn is heavenly, however, unlike the pattern.

It's probably me, as many people have made this neckwarmer - presumably successfully! I found the chart hard to follow, and the written version even worse! My friend Joan worked out that the chart was only HALF of the pattern, which explains why the Centre Stitch went up the left-hand side! I think it was because the edges were slanting that I was fixated on the idea that I was following the whole pattern.

Anyway, even when I knew this, I still seemed to have trouble and was forever pulling it back and re-knitting. But eventually I finished it. No TA_DA moment for me though, as I found the border rather disappointing. It would need (as stated in the pattern) AGGRESSIVE blocking to make this border into a 'pointy' edge as shown on the pattern. Without this it is only slightly wavy. My feeling is that a pattern should look right when finished and shouldn't need to be pinned out and stretched to within an inch of its life in order to look good. After all, what happens when the recipient washes it? I'm guessing it goes back to its natural shape, leaving a very disappointed owner (who will probably throw it in the bin)! This is what the border looks like just off the needles...

... no pointy edge at all!

Also I don't like the line that occurs where the pattern finishes and the border begins. I am considering pulling back the border and re-doing it in crochet. I reckon I could crochet something that would look pretty without blocking. What do you think?

To be fair to the designer, it seems I was given an old version of the pattern. To date the current revision is version 3, and this version does seem more user-friendly, with more written explanations.

Needless to say, Joan is not going to attempt this pattern, but is looking for something else to use her LIMA yarn with...