Tag: COL Page 4 of 6

Finally!

I’ve made it to the first color progression! It’s the marled of the white and the lightest brown. Looking forward to this color change propelled me on a knitting marathon to get to the point that I’m no longer knitting with white yarn.

The shawl doesn’t look very exciting right now. In lieu of the blob that it is, I photoshopped the pattern photo with a circle to show where I am in the shawl.

Looks good right? I’ve finished 138 rounds of 234 before the edging. It sounds like I’m half way through, doesn’t it?

Don’t let that thought fool you. Since it a circle that grows by 16 sts every 4 rounds, I have a long way to go. Just how far? Grace was very helpful with the following formula:

% complete = (current round / number of rounds) ^ 2

So, in my case, (138/234) ^ 2 = 0.347797502. That’s 35% complete, less the edging. (I actually jumped 2 whole % since I chatted with my sister. Woohoo!)

Sigh. I have a long way to go.

Moral of the story? Don’t discuss progress with a mathematician unless you want to get severely depressed. <grin>

Right now, it’s taking me about 50 minutes to work 2 rounds (pattern + plain). I estimated this to be about 12 sts per minute. So, based on these calculations, it will take me about 1 hour 20 minutes to finish the last pattern + plain round set. If I take an average of 1 hour per pattern round set, it will take me 48 more hours before I start on the edging. I’d better stop here or I’ll really depress myself. This is what happens when you start focusing on the numbers. (Just for the record, it is only 12 weeks to SOAR.)

On to a different set of the numbers. I’ve only used about 20% of the yarn by weight. I will definitely have enough to finish the shawl. The real question at this point is whether I will have enough of whatever color I start the edging with to finish the edging. I want the edging to be a single color without a color transition. I don’t want there to be a color shift when I join the start of the edging with the end.

Oh, well. I figure it out when I get there.

Circle of Life

I’m now part way through Chart 4. It is about 16″ in diameter, unblocked. this may be the last time I can photograph the full circle, since these are my two longest US #1 bamboo needles. I have longer metal ones, but I’m sticking with bamboo for travel reasons. According to my scale, I’ve only used up about 0.75 oz of the 9.5 oz of yarn. There is still quite a bit of white left before I get to the first color change.