I’m using an acrylic bulky yarn (it’s for someone who would ruin wool in a heartbeat) and the shawl is turning out rounded, not at all pointy on the end. Is this normal for a shawl on the needles, or has my yarn choice messed up the point. Since it is acrylic I assume I can’t block it when it’s finished. If it is not going to work with yarn I need to regroup quickly so this Christmas knitting doesn’t go down to the wire. What is going on with this?
Since it’s on your needles, that could affect how the shape looks, but from what I see in the pattern, starting with a few number of stitches and increasing by using yo’s, it should come out with a point at the bottom. How far in are you? I don’t think that the yarn choice would affect its shape while knitting - you’re right that acrylic probably won’t block worth much but you should still end up with roughly the right shape.
Are you sure that you are increasing at the proper rate? After that first row where there are virtually as many increases as there were original stitches, the increase rate goes down quite a bit by only increasing at each edge and on either side of the center, and only on right side rows. That’s the only thing I could think of that could possibly be going wrong for you, like if you’re maybe increasing on every row rather than every other row?? :shrug:
Would it be possible to post a picture so we can see??
from looking at your pic, it looks fine. it’ll turn out okay. When I did a lace shawl, it did the same thing the whole time it was on the needles. Mine turned out just fine.
If you’re worried, you could take a long scrap piece of yarn and thread it through the stitches that you have on the needle and remove the needle itself. Lay it flat and see if it forms the point like it shows in the picture. Shaped items never look quite right when they’re still on the needles.
I’ve made several shawls with that type of pattern. You increase 4 stitches every other row. You are working from the top down so the shawl fans out from the top. Your shawl so far looks just as it should at this point. Eventually it should develop a point at the bottom when you get there.
I was confused about that part because the pattern does say that it is knit neck down, but starting off with so few stitches it only makes sense that you are starting from the point end and working up.
I was confused about that part because the pattern does say that it is knit neck down, but starting off with so few stitches it only makes sense that you are starting from the point end and working up. [/quote]
Ohhhh. Since it called for casting on only a few stitches, I was confused. Sorry… :doh:
sue
Yes, the shawl is knit from the top down and starts with a few stitches. That’s why I mentioned that it fans out from from the top. I was hoping to avoid confusion with the bottom up shawls.
The bottom of the knitting in the picture will eventually be the top edge of the shawl. This is another variation of knitting a triangle shawl. One of the tell tale signs that this is a top down shawl is the 4 increases per row every other row. Shawls that are knit from the bottom up usually only call for 2 increases every other row. Keep going, you’ll be fine in the end.
