Living on the edge

Estonian shawl wip
Originally uploaded by Asplund

Here's my first attempt at a border around the Estonian shawl. I really like the one in the original design (easy to see in the shawl knitted by Flickr's annalore) but knitting it separately and then sewing it on - no thanks. So, I decided to pick up stitches around the shawl and then knit the border pattern upside-down instead - and resize the pattern to match my number of stitches. (Anything to avoid sewing.)

Unfortunately, knitting a pattern with nupps in the round didn't work,at least not for me: no matter how I try one of the stitches next to a nupp becomes enormous, looking like a big hole. I thought about knitting this section back and forth instead, but finally decided to try something completely different instead. What I've done so far looks promising, but I haven't knitted enough for good pictures yet. Will get back!

Frogging the edge at least gave me an opportunity to take a picture of the shawl. I'm quite excited about it and wonder how big the finished shawl will be. Unblocked and without a border it's about 70 cm (27½ in) wide. I've knitted lace shawls with this yarn before and they grew considerably during blocking.

This one may not grow quite as much, though, since I'm using slightly thinner needles (3½ mm/ US 4) and I don't know if the nupps will make a difference.

Here are some basic notes how I knitted the baby cardigan:

• I cast on ca 90 stitches.
• After getting the desired width I knitted about 1/3 of the stitches with a separate thread (for the sleeve) and then went on as before.
• When the back was wide enough I did the same thing for the second sleeve and then went on to knit the second front.
• Strand removed and stitches picked up around the armholes; sleeves knitted in the round to desired length.
• Shoulder joins sewn together.
• Buttons sewn on and loops crocheted.
• Strings crocheted to be able to tie the two fronts together on the inside.

Happy new year, everyone!