For most knitters who knitted their share of shawls, this technique may seem obvious. But then, a friend asked me for a very fast and very simple shawl pattern. As usual, I started to seach in one of the two obvious places, DROPS (the other is Ravelry, naturally), and while the DROPS Site has a handful of basic, top-down triangular shawls, that could be knit with as thick or thin yarn as possible, none of them had the garter tab start, that is small, simple, but elevates how the edge of a shawl look.
What is this "garter stitch tab"? ever wondered how shawls seems to have no beginning, because it looks like it is knitted from the top down, but you cannot see the start, because it has a garter stitch edging... all the way?
This is how it is worked.
Note: In my knitting, I always knit the first (edge) stitch, and always take the yarn to the front before the very last stitch and slip that last stitch without knitting it. The edge stitches are NOT counted in the pattern (usually, but if they are, then it is specifically mentioned).
Start with casting on five stitches.
Knit the three middle stitches with garter stitch, and the edge stitch on BOTH side, as above (knit the first stitch and slip the last one), until we have 5 garter ridges (that is 10 rows).
Now I slipped the stitches to the other side of the needle (so I would not have to cut and reattach the yarn).
Leave the first 5 stitches on the needle, turn the piece 90° and pick up one stitch at the end of each ridge (we pick up 5 stitches, where the arrows show).
It looks like this.
Now, turn the piece 90°again, and pick up 5 stitches in the "bumps" of the cast-on row.
You have 15 stitches on the row, it looks like this (I know, it is scrunched up a bit, but we will get though that phase).
Turn the piece, knit the edge stitch, 3 stitch with garter (knit) stitch, purl, until you have 4 stitch in the row, 3 stitch with garter(knit) stitch, and slip the last one.
When you finished, it looks like this:
If you use stitchmarkers, you should place them now, where the arrow shows them:
You have 1 edge stitch, 3 garter stitch, Marker, 3 knit stitch, Marker, 1 knit stitch (this will be the middle stitch), Marker, 3 knit stitch, Marker, 3 garter stitch, and an edge stitch.
Now, knit the edge stitch, the 3 garter stitch, make a YO (yarnover), knit 3, YO, 1 knit stitch (this will be the shawl's middle stitch), YO, knit 3 stitch, YO, 3 garter stitch and slip the edge stitch. Your piece should look like this, now. You have increased 4 stitch in every right side row.
The yarnovers are circled in the picture below.
On the wrong side row, you knit the edge stitch, the 3 garter stitch (knitted), purl, until you have 4 stitches on the row (careful, not to twist the yarnovers, as they should leave a small hole), 3 stitch garter stitch, and slip the last stitch.
Continue in the above manner. In the below picture the black dot shows the middle stitch, the small arches show the place of the yarnovers (you increase 4 stitches in every right side row). The black arrows shows the way you knit, and the blue arrows show which way your shawl will grow.
If you want a simple stockinett shawl with garter stitch edges, keep knitting until you achieve the desired size of the shawl (maybe the desired size of the shawl minus a few -3-5 cms-). Then knit all the stitches with garter stitch (knit in every row), while continue with the increases for about 6-12 rows (it is up to you how wide edge you want). Then loosely cast off the stitches.
Also, you can knit the WHOLE shawl with garter stitch, then you will HAVE to use the markers, and still increase on every first row, and just knit all the way back in the worng side row. If you keep the middle stitch stockinett (knit on the RS, and purl on the WS), that can add some visual interest to your simple shawl.
So there you go, now you know (on way of) how to start and knit your very first, very simple shawl.
Happy Knitting!
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