The Next Prayer Shawl

I had a flurry of knitting dishcloths leading up to the church fair on November 20. Didn't sell all of them. I think a large assortment would be more effective, that is, if we had, say, a hundred of them to choose from then we would sell more. I hope to make many in the next 11 3/4 months!

Christmas is coming but I am not planning to knit any gifts. I suspect that I will want to make an American Girl Doll sweater soon. That should ebe quick, though. Knit Picks Palette would be great fun to use for a colorful AGD sweater and hat.

Returning to the Prayer Shawl Ministry, I received a request from the group organizer to knit a scarf for our (UUCSB) organist. He is a well-groomed man who wears a black suit, white shirt, and black tie on Sunday morning. What could I knit that he would like and would not be devastatingly boring? I settled on Knit Picks Gloss at 220 yards on 50 grams in two colors: Black and Porcini. Porcini is a flavor of taupe. How to knit the two colors? Double knit! One side is black with taupe pin stripes and the other size is taupe with black pin stripes. It is 49 stitches wide, or about 6.5 inches. I am using 3.0 mm needles made of a beautiful black wood. Connie gave me the needles a few years ago. The needles are an excellent tool but I must admit that knitting black yarn on black needles is not ideal.

I used the tubular cast on, starting with one side's worth of stitches. In other words, I cast on 49 stitches with waste yarn, made a few rows in stocking stitch, then started the black yarn. I knit 5 rows of stocking stitch with the black. On the purl side of the black, I made the tube and added the second side of the double knit fabric by picking up and knitting the end of the first row of black with the taupe. Then I purled the first stitch on the left needle with black. And so on. Knitting Daily has an excellent video about the tubular cast on. I can't find any videos or instructions about this, so maybe it is my invention. Please watch the tubular cast on video to get the idea. Here are my directions:

1. With waste yarn, cast on the number of stitches for one side of the double-knit fabric
2. With waste yarn, Knit 4 rows of st st
3. With Color 1, knit stocking stitch for 5 rows ending with a right-side row

In the next row, the tube is formed and the second side of the double knit fabric is started.

1. With Color 2, pick up and knit the last stitch of the first row of Color 1; move both yarns (Color 1 and Color 2) to purling position
2. With Color 1, purl stitch on left needle; move both yarns to knitting position
3. With Color 2, pick up and knit strand between last and next-to-last stitch of first row of Color 1 (The video is very helpful when identifying what to pick up.); move both yarns to purling position
4. With Color 1, purl stitch on left needle

Continue to process one picked up stitch and then one stitch on needle (Steps 3 and 4), alternately. End with purling the last stitch on the left needle with Color 1.

I am pleased with the results of this starting methods. I have used other cast on methods and double-knitting beginnings. I experienced tight stitches and thus difficulty which this method avoids. For my pin striped scarf, I worked the tube-forming row in pattern.

So really the Next Prayer Shawl referred to in the title of this post is a scarf.