Evenstar Cape - Finished!

I finished up my Evenstar Cape last weekend, blocked it Tuesday morning and had Bruce take a picture Tuesday afternoon.  According to knitCompanion it took me 101.5 hours.  Not too bad.  I have never used the project time before, but decided to check it out after seeing some posts about it on the knitCompanion forum on Ravelry.  My modifications are available as a free Ravelry download - Evenstar Cape.  At the time I am writing this post it has been downloaded 116 times.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Border Progress

I have been working away on the border of my Evenstar Cape.  I did modify the original border pattern a fair bit, adding a two-stitch garter stitch edge, which helps the dagger beads lay better.  I also slip the first stitch of the wrong side rows, changed the slant of the decreases after the point and only have two rows of beads.  The down side of having those dagger beads pre-strung on the yarn is that you have to pause regularly to slide them further along the yarn.  I have to be careful when sliding the beads to minimize the stress that I put on the yarn, so I slide them in groups of 5 or 6.  The up side of having those dagger beads pre-strung is you have a ready made progress indicator.  I am almost half-way done with the border and last night I shifted everything to a shorter circular needle.  I had been working on a 40 inch, but it was starting to get a little annoying.  Now I am working on a 24 inch.  It bunches up the shawl stitches, but makes things easier to handle.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 3 Done!

It is amazing to me how quickly this shawl is working up compared to how long it took me to make my first Evenstar.  I suppose a lot of that has to do with experience.  When I knit the Evenstar shawl as part of the Mystery Knit Along (back in 2010!) I had only knit 5 other shawls and it was my first time using pure silk lace weight yarn.  It took me almost 4 1/2 months to complete.  This time around it will probably take me less than 2 months.  In other big news, today I published all of my modifications to Ravelry as a free download, with the permission of the original designer.  There is not enough detail in my modifications file to knit the pattern without the original pattern as I don't include all of the charts.  I do include my modified Chart 2 that shifts the start of that chart to make it symmetrical and I also include a modified Border chart.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 3 - 48 Rows Done

Twenty-four rows, of 567 stitches each, in two days must be some kind of record, at least for me.  The nice thing is that I've made it through all of the twisted rib rows, so now my wrong side rows are just easy purls.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 3 - 24 rows Done

I finished up the first 24 rows of Chart 3 today.  When this was done as a mystery knit along this chart was broken up into 3, with this being the first part.  I thought it would be a long horrible slog repeating those same 4 rows 6 times, but it really wasn't that bad.  I started Chart 3 on the 29th of August, so it only took me one week.  Every evening I would work a couple of rows, although I usually didn't make it through a complete repeat.  When you look at a pattern like this you think that it must take forever, but it really doesn't, especially if you break it up into reasonable chunks and just focus on making steady progress.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 2 Done

I finished up Chart 2 yesterday afternoon and figured out the increase for Chart 3.  The beauty of my modification to Chart 2 meant that I didn't have to shift Chart 3 to get things to line up (in the original pattern the beginning of round marker is shifted 10 stitches before beginning Chart 3).  It really makes me wonder about the original design process.  At this point there really isn't any more figuring to do until I get to the border, but at 567 stitches per row, that is going to take a little while.

Once again, I have an extra stitch at the end of the row because there are seven rows where the motif wraps across the beginning of the round.  On the other rows I work the last stitch the same as I work the first stitch to maintain the symmetry.  The increase row was a little bit different - I knit 3, then (k1, yo) to the last 4 stitches, knit 4.

I switched to my second skein towards the end of this chart, using up all of my first skein before switching.

Chart 3 is a long slog, so I'm breaking it up by working on some of my other works in progress.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Figuring out Chart 2

Chart 2 presented the first challenge in my conversion.  I remember when I was knitting this shawl the first time I was frustrated by this chart because the motifs don't line up with the motifs in chart 1.  Chart 1 is worked over a 16 stitch repeat and chart 2 is worked over a 20 stitch repeat and they only line up at 2 points.  I spent a fair bit of time trying to modify the charts to make them line up, but in the end I gave up and knit the pattern as written.  The other frustrating aspect of this chart is that the pattern is not symmetrical as it is charted, although it is symmetrical when knitted.  This project gave me the chance to revisit that chart and see what I could make of it the second time around.

The first thing I noticed was the decrease row between the two charts.  First you knit a regular increase row, than a plain knit row, then a decrease row where you decrease 8 stitches, another knit row and then start knitting chart 2.  As I started working the math, the first thing I noticed was that if I did my increase row I would end up with 291 body stitches, while the chart needs 280 for the circular version and 281 for the flat version - remembering that extra stitch at the end of the row.  That meant that I would have 10 extra stitches.  My first thought was to take advantage of the fact that I could work an extra half repeat of the chart.  I fired up my charting software and first entered the chart as written, then I started adding columns and copying and pasting, expanding the chart in both directions.  As I worked I pondered the implications if I were to keep those 291 stitches on working the rest of the shawl and decided that the best course of action would be to maintain the stitch count as nearly as possible.  I also noted that there was a very simple way of making this chart work perfectly for knitting flat.

The solution was so simple that I wondered why the designer didn't adjust the chart during the design process.  All it requires is a little arts and crafts.  First, print the chart, then cut the chart vertically between stitches 15 and 16.  Also trim away the "no stitch" in column 21, cutting carefully around the 3 stitches in rows 47, 48, 49.  Now take that strip of stitches and place them to the right of stitch 1, carefully lining things up and placing those 3 stitches into the no stitch section of column 1.  Apply tape to secure.  When you knit the chart, there will still be an extra stitch at the end/beginning of the right side/wrong side rows.  Just knit/purl that stitch as appropriate.  On rows 33 and 53 that stitch is needed to handle the s1k2togpsso stitch as it was handled in chart 1.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 1

I will be starting my Evenstar Cape Knit Along in two weeks, but I wanted to work out the details of the conversion to make sure that I wouldn't lead anyone down the wrong road so I cast my cape on this past week.  Readers of my blog will get a look ahead at what I will be covering in the Knit Along as I capture my process.

When making a conversion like this the first thing that you have to do is carefully review the pattern.  The main things to look for are stitches that cross the end of round marker (also denoted in patterns by "dancing markers") and asymmetries in the pattern that might not lend themselves to being split into a cape (or semi-circular) shawl.  This kind of pattern review is most easily done by looking at the charts, so for the non-chart knitters I strongly recommend that you take the plunge and learn how to read charts.  It really isn't that hard.  I recommend J. C. Briar's book Charts Made Simple:  understanding knitting charts visually.  You can still spot these things by looking at the written directions, provided that they are well written - just look for the pattern repeats and then look at what other stitches you have to do that are not included in the pattern repeats.

For Chart 1 of Evenstar we are very fortunate in that the motif is symmetrical, although it does wrap across the end of round marker on rows 7, 13 and 27.  Row 7 begins with a special stitch - increase 7 in a k3tog.  The other two rows begin with a slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over (s1k2togpsso).  That special stitch is going to take a little careful thought (and some experimentation), so lets look at the easy stitch first.  The s1k2togpsso stitch is a type of double decrease, we're taking 3 stitches and turning them into one.  If you split that stitch apart by converting  from knitting in the round to knitting flat and you still want to retain symmetry in the design you would need to start those rows with a k2tog, yo and end those rows with a yo, ssk.  That takes care of the double decrease, but we need 4 stitches, not two.  What to do?  Easy, add an extra stitch at the end of the row.  When you're not knitting one of those 3 rows you just knit or purl that stitch as appropriate.

Now lets go back and look at the special stitch.  This one is easier to decipher if you look at the chart.  You will note that in row 6 there are 3 "no stitch" spots, so you know you need to increase 3 stitches.  After a little trial and error (and you have to be willing to experiment) I decided that an increase 4 in a k2tog is the way to treat this special stitch at the beginning and end of the row.  A word about the increase stitch.  Susan Pandorf offers 3 different ways to work this stitch and recommends that knitters try out each of the methods while working the swatch to determine which one they like best.  I prefer the method that uses the yarn overs.  It results in a nicely symmetrical Evenstar, with an open center, and is also easy to work.  There is just one small problem with using yarn overs, you have to do an odd number of increases because the yarn over has to be worked between two regular knit stitches and at the beginning and end of the row we need to work 4 increases.  To handle that I did the knit, yo, knit, and ended with a knit into the back of the stitch.

Now that we have all of those things worked out (and hopefully you've annotated your pattern appropriately) take a look at the pattern again and ask yourself if there are any other modifications that you would like to make.  For example, in rows 11 and 25 there are k4tog stitches.  I decided to work the first k4tog in row 11 as a ssssk and the second k4tog in row 25 as a ssssk, so that they would both slant away from the central petal.  The other thing to consider before you begin is whether you want to add beads, and where you would like to add them.  I decided to add beads to the points of the Evenstar.

Okay, we're now ready to figure out how many stitches to cast on.  Looking at the pattern we note that this is a traditional "Pi" shawl so it starts out with a number of rounds of knitting followed by increase rounds.  The last increase round before Chart 1 gets us to the stitch count for that round, which is 144 stitches.  But wait, we need an extra stitch to work this flat, so we need 145 stitches when we complete that increase round.  Obviously we don't want to start the shawl with 145 stitches, so go back to the stitch count before the increase round, which is 72 stitches.  We also have to consider edge stitches.  I like to work a 3 stitch garter stitch border, which would bring the cast on stitch count up to 78.  I cast on 78 stitches and knit 4 rows and then worked the increase row.  When you work one of these yo, k1 increase rows in a circular shawl you double the number of stitches, but when you work one of these yo, k1 increase rows while knitting flat you wind up at the end of the row and you've just knit a stitch and there are 3 edge stitches left.  If you do one more yarn over before you knit those 3 edge stitches you will actually increase by 73 stitches instead of 72, which gets us that extra stitch that we wanted for Chart 1.  Pretty cool, huh.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)