Long story short:  I’m designing a sweater.

I can’t show it to you just yet, because it is missing a sleeve…but I can show you the amazing buttons I ordered for it.

I tried looking for wooden buttons at all of my local crafty places, and the big box stores.  Some places wanted more than $2.00 a button!

I normally assume that hand made will cost more than store bought, but not this time.  I’m a wooden button fanatic, and I think I’ve found a great place to get them.

8 Sugar Maple Wood buttons for $8.50

I’ve linked to the original etsy listing so you can both view the shop and appreciate the photography.

And here they are with me!

Aren’t they AMAZING?!

Now I’d better finish that sweater.

Admit it…you want these buttons!

 Since I’m sure that everyone is  comfortable with Short Row and Stripe Sequences, why don’t we just cut to the end of Short Row Sequence #6.

The Bind Off is pretty simple.  I carried the CC yarn up the side and used a cable cast on.

Knit 2 normally, and then ssk, using up one of the MC stitches in the process.

Slip these three stitches back to the non working needle, and start over again.  Easy, right?  As you continue, it looks like a little worm crawling along the edge of the work.

And once you run out of MC stitches, slip the 3 CC stitches back to the non working needle for the last time, and knit 3 together.  Once you remove the work from the needles, you get this:

Yes, I know.  It’s terrible, it’s curly, and you might be inclined to hate it.  It’s pretty much unwearable!  You can’t even try it on.  How will we fix it?  Just calm down and throw it in some water before it drives you crazy.

Now lay it flat to dry.  I didn’t need pins, but if you’d like a more dramatic shape, I’m sure they’d help.

Wow, isn’t that a change?

Since we’re all done now, I can finally share pictures of my finished shawls.  Enjoy!  I can’t wait to see yours!

I’ve been waiting for Clue #3.  My favorite part of any project always involves increases/decreases/shaping.

The method I’ve chosen for this shawl is simple.  You’ve probably seen it around in shawls by Susanna IC and many others!  We’re going to do short rows, yes, but we’re going to hide them in our decreases.  No wrap and turns, no funny business.  Still keeping it simple enough for a beginner.

Every so often we’ll break rhythm and add a stripe.

Since it’s pretty easy (and someone knit most of this on a road trip), I’ve taken pictures of the first short row sequence, as well as a picture of the finished clue.

We start by knitting 172 and placing a marker.  This is the last time you will have to count higher than 10.  (in this pattern, anyway)

Turn, slip 1 and k10.

Place another marker and turn.

Knit to 1 st before the next marker.

SSK, k6, turn.  (Your marker will always be right between the two stitches used in the decrease on both sides.)

Same thing on the wrong side.  I will have to slip the first stitch and remove my marker.  Then I will return the slipped stitch so I can p2tog.

You can see my p2tog if you count over 7 stitches on the right needle.

The next four rows are very much a repeat of the previous two, so I’ve skipped ahead a little bit.  This is Short Row Sequence #1 completed.

Row 1 of the Stripe Sequence should feel very familiar.  It’s just like Rows 3, 5 and 7 of the Short Row Sequence, but with one minor change.  After you ssk, k6 and move your marker, just keep going to the end of the row.

Row 2 of the Stripe Sequence is similar to Rows 4, 6 and 8 of the Short Row sequence.  Again, work your decrease, p6, place your marker and just keep on going!  The following picture shows the whole piece after Stripe Sequence #2 Row 2.

The rest of this clue draws upon what we already know.  The rest of the Stripe Sequence is just two rows of CC and two rows of MC, like back in Clue #2.

This clue has two more Short Row Sequences and two more Stripe Sequences.  I didn’t feel the need to take a picture of each one.

But when you’re all done with Clue #3, you should have something like this:

We’re almost done!  Can you feel it?

Next week, we’ll do a little more striping and a little more short rowing.  Since you’ll already know how to do that, my blog post will probably focus more on the bind off and blocking.

See you next week!

Since several people have been asking nicely since the shawl was released yesterday, I went ahead and made an estimated size table.

Note that you want to get as close as possible to the specified gauge to make these estimates more accurate!

Yardage and Grams are rounded up for all of these estimated sizes, so that you should be able to make each size with the given number of grams (and a bit left over, just to be safe.)

The highlighted size is the one given in the pattern, and the one I’d recommend.

Remember, you can get the pattern in the Summer 2011 issue of Tangled!