Pi Shawls

There’s been much talk on Spin-List about Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Pi Shawl. Predictably, a knitalong was started. Not quite so predictable, gasp!, I joined. I don’t do KALs in general, because I don’t like to be a crowd. But, I saw this as an opportunity to give myself a kick in the butt to finish the Pi Shawl that I already started. It’s currently waiting for me to brave the storage unit to find the alpaca rovings, and spin up more yarn.

And, predictably, I got sucked in. Big time. All that talk about what yarn to use, what fiber to spin up, how it should be spun, which pattern to use. Which pattern, you ask? Isn’t there just one? Wow. I never realized how many shawl patterns are out that that use EZ’s formula for a pi shawl. Way cool. Way too many choices.

Then, I heard about the half pi. Yes, half pi. I have no idea where to find the pattern, but I’m intrigued. I didn’t have the patience to spin anything up. The only things I have at hand that I would want to use are silk, and I just don’t have the patience to spin up 3,500-4,000 yards of silk singles and then ply it up.

Ah-ha! What about that beautiful lace weight singles I got as an exchange from Amy? So, I casted on 5 stitches on US Size 6 needles, and got going. I made it to the 5th increase round, and saw how much the edges are curling. It wasn’t noticeable at the beginning because of the increase rows. Once the increase rows started to spread out, all those st st rows started to curl under.

Some sort of edging is required. What it needs is a garter stitch edge. I didn’t want to pick up the stitches along the top edges (diameter) at the end to knit an edging. An edge that is knitted along with the body of the shawl.

So, I picked up some scrap yarn, and tested out my theory.