video tutorial: icord CO and seams

Crescent shaped shawl are started in the middle of the inner circle and I often felt like this inner seamline was to tight. The stitches are stretched to the max when worn and depending on the yarn you use it could feel very harsh against skin. That's why I felt like a softer seamline would also make wearing the shawl make more comfortable. I simply added one row of stitches the seam-stitches by using the i-cord method and the result is smooshy and soft.

How do you do it?, basically you cast on a short i-cord then yarn over and continue on the other side of the i-cord, then work back and forth.
Most crescent shaped shawls use a stitch repeat of (k2, yo, pattern, yo, k2) resp. (k2, kyok, pattern, kyok, k2) as side stitches. I just substituted this "k2" stitches for the i-cord brim which evolves from the i-cord cast on. And made three i-cord rows instead of the classic two rows (right and wrong side). In the video below I take you through the single steps. I hope you find it helpful:

do you make shawls as well? which shape is your favorite? do you knit at all?
most of my readers probably came here for my amigurumi, so did you find it helpful?

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video making...

... is so weird. First I tried with voice BUT do you remember back in school when your teacher asked you to make a "radio play" or something alike? and you were shocked to hear your own voice? I still feel like that so I cancelled the tone.

But it's not only the tone, also watching my hands, super big, on the screen, knitting, it's so weird as well. Like an outer body experience, or something like that, weirdo!

What am I filming? a little video tutorial for the cast on I talked about in my last post. A side effect is, that now that I finally overcome my "fear" of the camera other videos will follow. I plan quite a few crochet tutorials as well, some will be additions to existing tutorials, a video sometimes explains better than a couple of pictures.

Do you make videos as well? are you on youtube? Please link to them below, if you want to share

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a little bit knitting

the test crocheters for Wesley are doing great so far and I'm sure I will be able to upload the pattern next week. Keep your eyes open :) as I also will have a 50% discount on it the first two weeks after introduction.

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in the meantime I needed to decide between finishing a cardigan and waking it from its beauty sleep or casting on something new. A new summery shawl to be precise. And startitis won, I casted on. *sigh*

Casting on also included some experimenting. I love the "new" shawl shape that is rounded but not like half a circle but something between that and a classic scarf. Last year I made Charlize:

And even though I loved making it I hated the "side seam" which is the inner seam in the finished piece. It's soooo stretched that it gets hard and feels like cutting into my skin. I asked on ravelry and it seamed like I was the only one?

I ended up adding a crochet edge to this seam which made it softer but couldn't be the best solution. So now I'm trying some things to add stitches to the seam to make it stretch a little less and therefore softer:

a "i-cord-cast-on" with a kyok in the middle on the left picture and an "i-cord-cast-on" with a simple yo on the right picture

Am I really the only one feeling this way about shawl edges?

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a finishing sunday

you won't believe because I hardly can ... I finished two items today, one of them is Wesley yay he's finally done and has eyes, not the ones I had in mind a few days ago because these turned out too big for his tiny body but little stem eyes. I think they suit him surprisingly well, what do you think?

the other item is knitted, it's the blue "water" Wesley is sitting on. It's High Seas by Kieran Foley. I started this shawl almost two years ago and it was sitting in a bag for way too long.

It still needs blocking and a proper photo shoot, just like Wesley does. The pictures just don't do him justice.

Hope you had a fab week and another fab to come

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eureka

I just woke up and thought I tell you, last night I had THE idea how to make crab eyes, I've been circling around them for hours and hours and now I think I found them. They include front loops and back loops and both loops too and probably a completely new stitch too o_O and I'm writing it down to not forget it ^__^

see you later, have a supercute Wednesday

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weekly flashback

this week in instagram form:

1| lunchbreak at Werbellinsee, a nice little hotel north-east of Berlin 2| I had Schnitzel and cucumber salad with fried potatoes, it was very gooood 3| I had ordered bead crocheted necklaces from Italy a while ago which arrived now and are gorgeous (etsy) 4| our weather this week, very hot, very humid with lots of thunderstorms 5| friday night out, crochet and cocktails 6| I want fall and bought new shoes 7| my balcony 8| since Wesley the crab is making my mind spin, I just can't fix his eyes, I needed to get my mind running on something else, so I picked up a shawl I had started in 2010 and never finished - two good things happened, I'm about to finish the shawl AND I have two new ideas for Wesleys eyes 9| we had a little BBQ tonight

what was your week like?

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Greens

#photoadayjuly

As the crab is breaking me, or at least its eyes are way more difficult than I first thought I'm sharing a picture of my balcony today. It just stopped raining and I used the opportunity to go outside.
Hope your weekend is sunny and funny

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rain and work all week

what about you?

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weekly flashback

|seen| a cool street art in Berlin |heard| about the Navajo knitting technique which origins from spinning and will definitively be something I will try in the future |learned| about the various ways a crab can pinch/snap/crush or even slice you |read| oh, no books this week |done| this week was filled with crochet, knitting, chatting and meeting; I love vacation |eaten| we had a BBQ :) |drunk| ice cold shaken teas with syrup (not my cup'o'tea) |been pleased| with Wesley, see below ^__^ |got annoyed| only the weather in the last two days: thunderstorms and heatwave |wished| I already had made some eyes for Wesley, so he could see the world around him |bought| too much yarn |clicked| ravelry

what's been your highlight this week?

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