Whipping through that tie-front shrug

On the left is the back and left side pieces of the shrug. I had those done yesterday. On the right is the back, left, right, and tie pieces of the shrug, done today.
I am going through this thing FAST. I originally started it Friday morning because I was in a three-hour long lecture class and needed something to do with my hands to keep me awake (in my defense, we didn't even have to take notes, and I don't drink coffee, the only beverage offered there). Then I knitted through my noon meeting, and while waiting for a dance show to start. And the next day, I knitted while waiting for a fashion show to start and while waiting for another dance show to start. And thus, two pieces were done. And the third and fourth I got finished today while lolling about. Go me!

This yarn is totally attracting people. While at the fashion show and the first dance show, there was a knitter sitting nearby me that got talking when they saw my yarn. And when I got my bag searched (god, I hate that) to go into the third dance show, the bag searcher liked it. Now that's kinda funny.

Here's the tricky thing: I really want this piece to have long sleeves. But the yarn on this thing goes so fast (I used my first ball of yarn just making the back. And I wasn't done yet. I'm almost finished with ball 3) that I'm not sure I can do it. Admittedly, (a) the pattern called for 24 inches of tie and I shortened it to 18 because I saw no need for the thing to be that big, and (b) I do have 8 remaining balls of untouched yarn left, and the pattern supposedly only uses 5 for someone with honkers my size. Not to mention (c) considering the REALLY SMALL size difference between small and medium on this pattern, I don't really get how it could possibly make it to five balls anyway.

But I do want to make sure I have enough to make the matching tank top, which is supposed to take 4 balls, and I don't want to run out of yarn to make that because I wanted to make sleeves. Maybe what I'll have to do is make the sleeves to the pattern length indicated on the pattern, do both with separate balls, then pin them off with safety pins and then go make the tank top. That might work best of all, I suppose...

Slightly frustrating, though- I'd like to have the shrug done for Whole Earth Festival so I have something light to cover up with while I work the booth. Last year I got planted right in direct sunlight and got burned no matter how much sunscreen I had on. Plus, well, the colors would go great with everything there :)

Comments

[Crystal]

I happened across your site searching for a tie-front shrug pattern that uses ribbon yarn. I haven't had much luck, so I wondered whether you could tell me where you found the pattern you used. Thanks!

[Jennifer]

There's a good tie-front shrug ribbon pattern in Knit.1's spring/summer edition. Assuming you can still find it on sale...I don't know if it is or not.

As for this pattern, I'm making it up myself. What I did was took the ribbon I had and made my own gauge to see how many stitches per inch I had going, then measured around my arm at the wrist, mid-lower arm, elbow, and upper arm middle and top.

For example, seven stitches = one inch. To go seven inches around, I cast on 35 stitches to start. I started making 2 increases (1 stitch on each edge, every other row) when I needed to start making it bigger, and kept testing around my arm to see if I was making it too big or two small.

I've been doing this on both arms, and will hopefully meet in the middle. Sorry it's not a more precise pattern, but I couldn't find a good ribbon shrug one either and had to make it up from trial and error! I hope this helps somehow...

[Crystal]

Thanks for the info. I just want short sleeves on mine, so I don't think that will be too hard to measure, but what I'm really confused on is the whole tie front. May I ask what you are doing to make it? I haven't done a whole lot of knitting, and I have no idea on how to make patterns, so I really appreciate the help.

[Jennifer]

I've got some pictures of how a tie-front works here.

All I did really was make two rectangles for the front, and ended up making what amounted to a buttonhole on one of the rectangles. I knitted a short rectangular piece for the tie and sewed it (attaching it in the middle like a book) to the edge of the other rectangle. It's not that bad to do.