Fine Lace Shawl Knitting - the grafting challenge

This is a technical piece as I researched the way I prefer to for join live stitches at the top of the board/ wedge with the garter edge of the centre of a square shawl. 

The shawl in question is the glorious Firth Shawl by Elizabeth Williamson(1) This is not about joining the 4 wedges to each other but just to join the 2 sides to 2 sides of the centre. 

Overall structure of the shawl to show which grafts are involved

 

For the experiments  I had  prepared 4 samples of the board/ wedge and one sample of the centre. 

At this stage I asked for advice from the Grafting group on Ravelry, lead by Joni Coniglio (2) If you have followed  my blog for some years you will know I have used her method of grafting for invisible lace grafting for some time. I thought had never attempted to graft live stitches to the garter edge of a lace central square before. 

Joni suggested that I could try to pick up the ‘valleys’ of the  garter edge onto a needle and this might help. So I did that and also added waste knitting to make the graft easier on both the pieces to be joined. See note (3) for more details of this waste knitting  or my blog of 29 Nov 2021

I tried this making a ‘knit not noticeable ’ stitch row on the edge of the board / wedge and a ‘purl ridge’ on the public side of the centre. 

This is the graft

But I was getting a holey line on the centre side as indicated

I had picked up the valleys so I did try to pick up the ridges just to see if the holey row went. Answer no. 

So next I picked up using a much smaller diameter needle. I know Shetland Lace knitters have a pick up needle whenever they are picking up lace. It is very narrow and I was fortunate to be gifted one. But even using this for the pick up from the side of the garter stitch did not diminish these extra holes enough.

I had run out of edges on my trial shawl centre! So I thought I could just knit a garter stitch strip and use that as all I was doing  was joining a garter stitch edge to live stitches. I thought about this for some time and realised that I had actually had the same problem when I had knitted the first Unst Shawl that I had Knitted with my own fine handspun yarn. 

Construction plan for this Unst shawl 

I got the Unst Shawl out now I am more experienced I wondered how I had  done this years back. It seemed good and did not have this extra town of holes/ loose stitches.

It seemed I had utilised the knotty edge on the Unst Shawl, so would try that. 

I did not want to stretch these so I put the very fine needle through the knotty edge stitches and then ran a slightly thicker yarn through them so I had already worked out where to put the needle through during the grafting.

 

I worked the grafting just as I would in any lace knitting graft.

I would put the the wedge with proper waste knitting  to finish it off as the lower sample and the garter edge ( which would be the centre of the shawl ) just with one contrasting thread through or the knotty stitches) and along this edge I would the purl ridge showing uppermost. (As in fig 34 of Joni’s booklet ‘ How to graft your knitting invisibly , Interweave Knits) 

I was really pleased with the effect and did not think I could do any better. 

Now to knit the centre of the shawl and then to do these 2 grafts on the real thing. It will be 2026 before this is completed but I am aiming for Jul when the grandson who hasn’t yet got his shawl will be 13!! 

Thanks Joni for the spark that got me in the right direction and I hope this level of detail will help others. 

1. Firth Shawl by Elizabeth Williamson knitting see here
2. Grafting group by Joni Coniglio is on Ravelry 
3. How to Graft 2 sided lace knitting , top to bottom by Joni Coniglio Winter 2022 see Interweave

Apologies the links are playing up!

Shetland Autumn 2023: Day 24: Sun 24 Sept: Shetland SKWD Exhibition and teas and catching the ferry back to Aberdeen

This was our last day and the weather forecast for the ferry journey was not good. In previous years, at this stage we would have delayed the journey. Having the motorhome means we don’t have to fix up other accommodation. However, it was not that simple this year, getting us and cabins and the motorhome on the same ferry would take some doing. We had talked to other  motorhome owners during the week and they had been quoted mid October as the next likely date if they postponed. I knew also that local people could not travel when they wanted. It seems three factors were different from pre Covid days, less sharing of cabins, more ferry traffic due to both the wind farm and space centre. We also felt it was time to get back as we were being away for a month  anyway. So we gritted our teeth and decided to risk the boat. Then we were told the  boat was going to leave at 5.30! This set alarms going in my head. 

We spent the morning clearing up and making sure we had everything ready to pick up and take into the cabin. 

We then left for Tingwall and decided that we would have our ‘Guild tea’ as a light lunch as we did at Ollaberry. It was frustrating that I would need to pack up my little part of the exhibition early. I was keen to see the Guild items as several of the members had not set up their work when I left on Friday. Kathleen had displayed her shawls along from mine, I certainly did not feel worthy of being along the table from such Shetland Knitting Royalty. Kathleen and I laughed about this. I did know that Kathleen had spent lockdown knitting haps for her family, I did not know that this meant 12! It was good to see the article from the local press about this and see them all wearing them. 

 

The magazine containing the article

She was also displaying some of her intricate faultless fine shawls and was actually knitting something amazing during that Sunday afternoon, being a mix of silk, wool and cashmere I believe. (1)

A section of a shawl on display

 

It was also nice to hear that my dyeing including the way I presented and labelled it was much commented on by visitors to the Guild exhibition. It is always nice to talk to visitors to an exhibition and find out what sort of wool work they do too. I love these exchanges. 

My  natural dyeing and handbag made from woven fabric. The solar dyed selection  is in the yellow box on the left. 

But one also goes to the teas to meet people and admire the great knitting made and worn. Always such a treat. 

A general view 

I was delighted to meet up with Satoka, from Japan who I first met pre Covid. Her spinning snd knitting of fine lace is fantastic. She had brought a shawl to show me, unfortunately I only have photos of us examining without the shawl in the picture, so this one shows a couple f people accompanying her on the trip. Great attention to detail in them too!  (I am wearing my 2024 hand dyed yoke jumper (ie the motifs are knitted in naturally dyed J and S yarn) and my black and white fair isle cardigan which I designed as a trial for the ground elder one. I still love this one which is now over 10 years old. 

We needed to be at the ferry at 5.30 rather than 7.30 so I had t leave the  teas early. We got to the boat on time and were soon on board, We did have a small ndinner on the ferry, although not many did. Eventually the waiting staff decided we needed to be escorted to our cabin. It was safest to take Michael in a wheelchair as the boat had quite a bit of movement. I had taken the tablets but was keen to lie down. I do not think I slept that night but was kept as calm as I could be listening to ‘The world in 100 objects’. Neither of us was physically ill, but we hardly slept and having to hold on to the bed to avoid being forced into the air was a new experience! The captain said we were avoiding the eye of the storm, that is why the journey was longer! When we arrived in Aberdeen the next morning it was still rough and we had to hold on to move on the boat. We were told the swell was expected to be 4 metres in the night. I have no idea if it was or if this is fair or bad. I do know it was a life experience that I will do all in my power to avoid in future. I think it was our 18th crossing on the ferry and to have one bad one in that number sounds good now but it did not feel good at the time. 

We did not have the complementary breakfast in the morning. I drove off the ferry and we stopped for about a quarter of an hour in the terminal car park to check we were feeling ok to drive on. Before we left we had already decided that we would not rush home and that going to Perth for the night would be a good plan. Little did we know what the rest of the journey had in store for us. 

Notes 

1. Kathleen won first prize plus at the Highland show  in the summer of 2024. Her lace design and knitting is truly exquisite and got more rosettes at Voe Show. This should take you to a post from Skeld Hall about Kathleen and photos of the winning shawl.