Leftie Shawlette Edging Technique

Leftie is great... except for all those ends. As the pattern is written, each contrast color stripe is a separate bit of yarn, leaving you to weave in dozens and dozens of yarn tails. Fantastic for using up leftovers, but what if you want to work the contrast color stripes and leaves in one ball of yarn? Helen has a solution.

Helen's Leftie in Birchwood and Wheel of Time

After several unsatisfactory attempts at not having to weave in millions of ends, I found a solution I like that carries the contrast color all the way up the shawl:

On the straight section, I KFB in the contrast color, then knit the rest of the row in the main color. The first stitch knit in the main color on front rows is the contrast color stitch you made on the last row's KFB.

Coming back, I knit the row in the main color (including the second to last stitch which was knit in the contrast color on the previous row. This links the edging with the body of the shawl nicely!)

Next bring the contrast color to the knit position (it was left in the purl position for this row when you KFB on the previous row), and KFB in the contrast.

On the Leaf Stripe rows, I bring the main color to the back/"knit" position after the first KFB, so that it looks generally the same as the regular rows. This also avoids bringing the MC up over a garter ridge upon completion of the stripe.

I knit my shawl with two full skeins of the main color and about 2/3 of a skein of the contrast color, and the size is wonderfully large and snuggly, which is how I like my shawls. Our Leftie sets make somewhat smaller shawlette sizes, which are great for accessories or tucking into jackets come winter. 

 

 

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2 comments

Great solve! Thanks for sharing with us!

Choctawgirl77

i have made many of these and always wrestled with this thank you

Barbara

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