Ok, so here's the deal. You know how most knit patterns are created with a selvedge edge to keep it from rolling under? (For those not "in the know", that's what those last couple of stitches on each row that don't seem to follow the pattern are for.). Well, I've been knitting the gorgeous Shattered Sun Shawl without that. All the way through the lace and last stockinette sections I started thinking it was a bit odd-- that's when I really started realizing the selvedge edge was missing.
I was beginning to think that blocking the shawl would be the solution. I've never seen a pattern make this type of assumption, but I was willing to go on faith. So I decided to push on into the final stockinette ruffle section of the shawl-- time to consult the pattern. An interesting thing happened when I started reading the next step... I actually read it through to the end since it wasn't just another "stockinette section" and saying to myself 'yeah, yeah, it's more stockinette'. You know what I found when I actually read the instructions? You'll never guess! Ok, you probably will--probably already have! I found a selvedge edge.
Scratching my head in confusion-- since patterns don't start a selvedge edge 3/4 of the way through-- I read back through the steps I 'glanced' through the first time. Wouldn't you just know it, there was that pesky little 'knit 2, purl to the last 2 stitches, knit 2' every step of the way. Talk about a palm-slap to the forehead moment... I still can't believe I made such a rookie mistake, being an "Experienced Lace Knitter" and all (see post #3). Trying to figure out where I went wrong has me all befuddled, but I have a theory.
From the very start of this amazingly, luxurious, finger-heavenly project, I've been knitting under the influence of heavy distraction. This mixed with impatient anticipation of such fibery goodness might have led to me take a few teeny shortcuts. I'm fairly certain that I read this part of the instructions at some point early on, and of course made a mental note about it before starting the shawl. And upon further inspection, I can see that I DID include the selvedge edge all the way up to the lace section. But somehow-- between sleep deprivation and toddler demand-- I left this important little nugget of information with other non-essential things such as the square root of 463, and the average birth weight of an African Elephant. And now I have this gorgeous CashSilk Lace shawl 90% finished with no selvedge edge and a bad case of "the rolls". Now to figure out how to fix this.
O.K...Here's the plan. Since the selvedge edge on this shawl is only two stitches on each side, I think I can "repair" the stitches. The second from the end on each side will be very easy to drop all the way down and then pick back up correctly. The edge stitch on each side will be a little more complicated-- not sure if I can "repair" this one or not since each stitch is actually two stitches, one right side and one wrong side. I will have to knit up a swatch and experiment. I think if this won't work, Plan B will be to drop the third stitch from the edge and incorporate this column into the selvedge edge instead-- leaving the edge stitches untouched. I will let you all know how it goes once I figure it out myself. Who knows, maybe there will be a tutorial or two that comes out of this!!! Crossing my fingers all will turn out well...
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