Decision time

Remember that Estonian shawl I’ve been working on for months? Back in November, I estimated that I could knit 15 or 16 vertical repeats of the main pattern before I had to start on the edging. Well, I’m just shy of 15 repeats. And updated estimates – achieved with scale, calculator, and conservative guesswork – reveal it’s high time to get going on the edging.

unblocked lace looks so sad, doesn’t it?

The question is, do I want to go the traditional route, knitting the edging in two pieces from the outside in before sewing it all together? Or do I want to go the modern route, picking up stitches and knitting the edging from the inside out?

Normally, I’m not a slave to tradition. (Somebody refresh my memory: Who said, “We do not honor tradition by slavishly repeating it”? Anna Zilboorg, I think.) Normally, I’m all in favor of seamless methods.

But this time I’m thinking of going the traditional route, just for the sake of trying it out. I don’t think the sewing up will be that onerous. Actually, I tried it out this afternoon, on a couple swatches. (Hooray for swatches!) Weave a tail through a selvedge loop on the swatch of the main pattern, then weave it through a bind-off loop on the edging swatch, repeat, repeat, repeat, and voilà! You get a lacy and reasonably attractive join.

looks okay to me

Alright, so it seems I’ve decided on the traditional route. Now it’s just a matter of gathering the strength to cast on and establish pattern over roughly 500 stitches… twice; once for each section of edging. Wish me luck!

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