July Pi

The July project from the Knitter’s Almanac is a large round shawl. Elizabeth Zimmermann lays out the rules for basic round shawl shaping, stating a simple plan for increase rows at larger and larger intervals, between which you can easily work whatever pattern you wish without worrying about shaping and pattern at the same time. This shawl knit up surprisingly fast, despite being rather large. I didn’t measure the finished dimensions, but it’s at least 5 feet in diameter and drapes comfortable across the shoulders.

The yarn was cashmere and silk from Colourmart. If you haven’t checked them out, you really should. The yarns are a pretty good deal, for very high quality wool. Plus I get the impression that the owner really cares about his job and takes fiber quality and customer service seriously.

What a lovely amorphous blob.

It looks kind of like a creepy sea creature.

Blocking is always fun. I used a string anchored at the center to act as my provisional radius. I think I cut it 30 inches, but maybe it was a bit more. It was still a bit challenging to smooth all the concentric rings into ringness, even after I got the outside edge to be the right size.

Check out the finished product.