Thursday, January 28, 2010

Casting on the Traveling Woman Shawl

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A few people in our Twitter KAL are having some problems casting on their Traveling Woman Shawl, which is a triangular shawl. I took a few pictures today with some random yarn and needles in the hopes of demystifying the beginning cast on.

1. Cast on 3 stitches and knit 6 rows.


2. Pick up 3 stitches along the edge. I just grabbed my left needle and picked up 3 pieces of stitch from the sides. Note that my working yarn is still attached to the last stitch I knit in that 6th row.

3. Knit those stitches. Note that the leftover cast-on yarn (if you use a long-tail cast-on) is right under the last stitch you knit.
4. Now, pick up 3 stitches from your cast-on edge. Again, I just nabbed 3 bits of cast-on with my left needle. My working yarn and my leftover cast-on yarn are both between my needles. The work is also a bit tight and awkward since there's only one "raw" or unworked edge of the original rectangle.
5. Knit these stitches. You should now have 9 stitches on your needle.

6. This is the back of your work now. Your leftover cast-on yarn is in kind of a strange place. But once you tuck it in, you won't notice. You are now ready to begin the stockinette portion of your shawl.

5 comments:

  1. You are fabulous! This is really fantastic, wish I'd visited sooner. lol Luckily I'm well on my way now but if you felt like doing a tutorial on the lace charts... (cough cough, hint hint) :)

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  2. Thank you for this tutorial!!!! I was getting SO frustrated!! I had a mental block about how this started---thinking because I knit 6 rows, I was supposed to pick up 6 stitches instead of 3 (THAT'S why it never added up to 9) Just like that the light went on (duh! :) It really helps to have someone take the time to make something very plain and clear to help us to get it! It seems so easy now!! (I still have problems with picking up stitches along the gusset for socks--and having them look good---any help there??) Thank you - I appreciate your help alot!

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  3. Paulette, I do have advice for sock gussets. If you're not already, slip the first stitch of each row of the heel flap. That creates one larger stitch per 2 rows that's easier to pick up. Then I pick up both legs of the V when I pick up the stitches because I think it looks nicer.

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  4. thank you so much. With the wonder that is google, I found this page. I was having a serious brain freeze on the start up row and here you are. This has made my day!

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  5. Thank you so much for this perfect-picture perfect- tutorial. I'm about to board a transatlantic flight and was just skimming the pattern and thought I was about to be detailed at cast on, with no YouTube to help me!! So pleased to have come across this on a quick google. Cheers!!

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