theraineysisters knitting and so much more

The Crescent Swallowtail – this has been a goal of mine for a while now.  I wanted to convert the triangular shape of the beloved Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark (over 11,000 Ravelry projects!!) to the crescent shape that I now prefer for shawls.

How hard could it be?  🙂  Harder than I first thought!

The difference between a triangular shaped shawl and a crescent is the rate of the increases.  A standard triangular shawl increases 4 stitches every two rows.  A typical crescent increases at a rate of 6 stitches every two rows.  I figured I would just use Excel to chart it all out and voilà!  My math skills started out a bit sketchy, but it all worked out in the end!  I also increased needle sizes along the way to enlarge the outer circumference.

I knitted up three samples to verify the accuracy of the charts.  I created two different styles and two different bind offs.  You can mix and match to create the look you want.

 Standard Option
This option uses all the elements of the original shawl: Budding Lace to start, Lily of the Valley nupps, and standard lace edging with original bind off.

Lv2knit’s Crescent Swallowtail

Blue Crescent Swallowtail out of Hazel Knits Entice, Color Twilight

Stockinette/Picot Option
I substituted stockinette for the Budding Lace pattern and added a picot bind off.  They are the same shape — I just laid them out differently for photos!!

Crescent Swallowtail in Shalimar Paulie (color: Orange is the New Black)

No hump cast on!

Picot Edging (this photo looks washed out!)

I wrote my mods up in pattern format so anyone and everyone can re-knit this shawl if they wish.  I recommend that you go to my Ravelry page to always be sure you have the most up-to-date version…I already made one correction and others may follow!!  I have one more on the needles and maybe more in my future…I’m loving this shawl!

Enjoy your own Swallowtail!!

PS to Janet: I did not share my spreadsheet and do not plan on it – it is kind of a mess!

PS2 — I finished my third Crescent Swallowtail!  Done in Malabrigo Sock (Impressionist Sky).  I did the standard version with the picot bind off (I think it’s my fave):

PS3 to Tina: I will admit to being a shameless enabler!! 🙂

As in Tippi Hedren.  As in The Birds, my husband’s favorite Hitchcock movie.

Anyway, I love birds and I’m a sucker for knitting patterns that feature them.  When I saw the Swallow Sweater (designed by Maschenwunder Manja Vogelsang) I was smitten — it was an immediate must knit.

I started this while recovering from foot surgery; it took my mind off being confined even more than usual under Covid.  The main color is Biches & Bûches Le Cashmere & Lambswool.  This yarn runs thick and thin and my knitting looked horribly uneven.  After wet blocking, it plumped up and smoothed out.  The final fabric is soft and wonderful.  The knitting looks a bit rustic but it feels fabulous.

For contrast, I used a beautiful merino and silk sock yarn I picked up at knitting camp a few years ago:   Fangirl Hand Dyed Yarn Silk Merino in Black Purl.   The Black Purl is a subtle mix of gray, purple, and green that to me mimics the iridescence of bird feathers.  The color is hard to capture in photographs but up close in person it works.

The pattern is well written and clear, but it’s complex to knit.  There are multiple repeating charts and extremely long floats.  To mitigate the floats, I used Susan’s invisible stranding technique as explained in her It’s Not About the Hat pattern.

I made two small changes to the pattern.  Instead of a crew neck, I knit a funnel neck with contrast ribbing.  I lengthened the body with a curved hem and shorter ribbing than the original.

It fits beautifully and I love it.  This, like most yoke sweaters, looks better on a real body than on a mannequin but these photos will have to do!

P.S.  I’m glad your daughter is safe, Kathy.  We are safe but devastated by the shooting that occurred in Boulder.  We live in a different part of town, but Boulder is small enough that it still feels close.  I used to frequent that shopping center because there was a nice, large yarn store there until last year (Shuttles and Skeins).  It’s very sad and unsettling.

Several people have asked if I could enlarge the Crescent Swallowtail.  I always do what I am told 🙂 so I did write up some notes on how to make the crescent larger.  I think the math is good, but you know knitters can’t count (just ask anyone who has cast on 397 sts and see if they can come up with the same number twice!!).

Enlarging the Crescent Swallowtail 5-15-2016

PLEASE let me know if you find any glaring errors or suggestions.  I will (as with the crescent pattern) keep my Ravelry page updated.  After people have made some bigger Swallowtails and I feel the information is solid, I will add the notes pages to the regular pattern so everything is in one place.

There are now two Crescent Swallowtails on Ravelry that were knit by people other than moi — yay!!  Now let’s get some bigger ones out there.

PS – I cannot give you yarn estimates.  I can only share the yardages I used when knitting my shawls.  The good news is that as others knit this version of the Swallowtail, more information will become available.  Thanks, all!!

PS to Deborah:  My first shawls were triangles as that was the prevailing shape at the time.   The problem with them is that as you make the shawl wider to increase the width between points (to fit better), the back just keeps getting longer and longer without adding “value”.  With crescents, the length is being added to the endpoints, making them easier to wear because they are long enough to tie in the front, or wrap around the neck.  Their gentle curve hugs the shoulders.  If they are really long and narrow they can be worn like a scarf.  Very versatile and easy to wear!

Mistakes were made.  Mathematical issues revealed.   Fingers were pointed.  Tears were shed.

Crescent Swallowtail Corrected.

Unfortunately, probably not the last of it.  🙁

PS — Karen asked about the dimensions and I should have included this before.

My original triangular shawl (which has “snapped back” and should be reblocked!) is 50 inches across the top, 21 inches deep at the center spine and 32 inches along the side (angular) edges.

Light Blue Crescent: 48″ at the top edge, 84″ at the outside edge, 11-1/2″ deep
Orange Crescent: 52″ at the top edge, 88″ at the outside edge, 13-1/2″ deep
Dark Blue Crescent: 54″ at the top edge, 90″ at the outside edge, 12-1/2″ deep

The difference in sizes relates to yarn weight.  Some sock yarns are heavier than others.  My original Swallowtail took much more yarn than any of these, but is smaller because I knit it tighter all the way through (never switching needles), and the depth at the spine takes up all the yarn.  Triangular shawls get longer and longer at the center spine and just not that wide at the top.

One of my goals is to write up some notes about making the shawl larger.  I want to make a bigger version in a gorgeous raspberry from my newly enhanced  stash, and I will definitely share my experience!!

What more could a knitter want than another Swallowtail Shawl??  I loved my first (in Malabrigo Sock, color Solis) so much I decided to make one more.  I got the yarn last year as  a result of the 2009 Sock Summit.  People could vote on different hand-dyed sock yarns from a variety of sources.  I fell for Georgia Peach (at least, I think that was the name!) by Three Irish Girls.  I liked it so much that I ordered a skein.  It took months.  So long, in fact, that I totally forgot about it.  It was like a little surprise package when it arrived!!

I couldn’t think of a good project for it until the last couple of weeks when I needed a second Swallowtail as a shop sample.  The colourway isn’t typical for me, but it is in my “warm, summer palette.” 

I used US 6 needles as called for.  With my first, I used a US 4 and added 5 repeats of the Budding Lace Chart.  They ended up the identical size.  The peach one is looser — and not quite as nice, in my HO. 

As luck would have it, Sharon from the Three Irish Girls will be here next weekend at Darn.Knit {Anyway} in Stillwater.  I didn’t realize until today that Sharon was conducting a workshop.  I teach that day myself so I wouldn’t be able to attend, but I may stop by to see if there is any yarn to buy look at.

…to add some whimsy to your Easter this year!  I made these Easter-themed cuties last Christmas.  Why?  I have no idea!  But, my great niece did not realize how weird it was to receive Easter eggs at Christmas and loved them.

Here are the chicks back in their eggs:

These are my rendition of the Egg-to-Bluebird pattern in Itty-Bitty Toys:

They take minimal amounts of worsted weight yarn (I used Cascade 220) and a small amount of stuffing.  A friend of mine substituted a small amount of orange felt for the beak and it was super cute and a lot easier.  I blocked the egg parts on plastic Easter eggs that are READILY available this time of year!

There is still time — and since I gave mine away, I may need to make one or two more for our Easter baskets.

PS: The first two commenters asked about the shawl on which the peeps are resting, so here is the information:

Pattern: Swallowtail by Evelyn Clark — yes, the pattern that almost everyone has made, including Surly just weeks ago!
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in color Solis

In general, my projects of late have been pretty small scale.  I have not made a sweater since my Lacy Cardigan last summer.  I used to be all about the sweater, and now I can’t get past mini-projects.  Surly has been cranking out FOs like hotcakes, so I feel the need to play catch up!

Here is the latest of my mini-projects: the Damson Shawlette by Ysolda Teague.  It is made with one skein of sock yarn (Malabrigo Sock is called for in the pattern).  Surly generously shared the remains of the yarn she used for her Swallowtail.  It is beautiful yarn — a rich mix of all the best of the fall colors.  BUT, the skein starts off with slightly less yardage than Malabrigo Sock, and Sally had to dip into the skein she sent me, so I worried a bit about yardage.  I shortened my Damson 6 rows and then did a crocheted chain bind off instead of the multi-row bind off shown in the pattern in hopes of having enough yarn.  I also added openwork as discovered in this Ravelry project by Linda Butkus.  I don’t know if this variation requires more or less yarn, but I DO know that I ended up with only one gram of yarn when I was done.  One.  Uno.

I like it.  It’s pretty.  I’m not sure when I’ll wear it, but it is a beautiful way to use up one skein of gorgeous sock yarn without having to knit socks 😉 !

PS: Barb asked, “Looked on Ravelry but no sign of how Linda did the insert, just lovely pics–did you contact her for instructions or figure it out yourself?”

I figured it out myself by looking at Linda’s version and then revising the chart.

My Ode to Joy is coming along nicely.  The back is done, and I started the second front.  That is all.

Okay, so we have hit a boring patch.  That always allows us to fill in with other crap explore new and exciting alternatives!  Here are some pun-tastic jokes to keep you laughing (or retching as the case may be) as you read the latest stock market reports:

1.  The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2.  I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3.  She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4.  A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5.  The butcher backed into the meat grinderand got a little behind in his work.

6.  No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

7.  A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8.  A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9.  Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10.  Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11.  A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

12.  Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

13.  Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, ‘You stay here, I’ll go on a head.’

14.  I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

15.  A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’

16.  A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’

17.  A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

18.  It’s not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.

19.  The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

20.  The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

21.  A backward poet writes inverse.

22.  In democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.

23.  When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

24.  Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Groan!