Thursday, November 09, 2006

Prayer shawl finished and fringing


I finished the fushia prayer shawl finally. This one really took me a long time to make, but when you consider that it was my" take along" project it really isn't too bad. I would work on this while I had to wait for someone or something. You know how it goes. Last night I made the fringe. Making fringe with the Lion Brand homespun is no easy feat. As soon as you cut the yarn it immediately starts to fray. That means you really have to knot each stand after you cut the lengths and before you attach it to the shawl. That is a secret that was passed on to me by the ladies in my church's prayer shawl group.

This is a close up of the shawl:


Through trial and error I've found the easiest way to cut the lengths of yarn for the fringe to get them all the same length is to use a clip board. This is how I wrap the clip board with the yarn:

I wrap the board twice counting as I go, using the big clip to hold down the first strand of yarn. Two stand per cast (57 stitches in my case) on stitch and I attach 2 strands at a time with a crochet hook. This makes a very full fringe.

Here's a picture of me cutting the strands on the clip board.

What's nice about using the clip board is that it doesn't bend. If you have ever used cardboard to wrap the yarn it inevitably bends and the strands can become uneven unless you only do a few at a time.

The next prayer shawl will be made from yarn that was donated to our church by Coats and Clark. They were so generous. They sent us a huge box of mill ends for us to make shawls with. That was so nice of them. Thank you Coats and Clark :)

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the good luck wishes - one more week to go!

    The shawl is lovely - great colour (and the clip-board is a good idea). x

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  2. What a pretty shawl! The clip board is a great idea. I'll definitely remember that one. Homespun is not my favorite thing to work with, but it sure makes a nice knit.

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  3. Do you work on a *k3 p3* k3 pattern or do you just knit? I am still on the first skein of a prayer shawl in "Montana Sky" and I (for whatever reason) have a hard time with the k3 p3 pattern. Sometimes I get 4 to the end and I still need to p3 k3.

    I am so not looking forward to fringe.

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  4. Good - now you can start on some socks...

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  5. Lady S,
    Homespun is a very difficult yarn to work with. It is very hard to see what you've done, but it does cover up errors! I found when I first started that it was much easier to place stitch markers every 6 stitches. That seemed to help, especially if I had to stop knitting mid row. Hope that helps :)
    Happy knitting :)

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