Have you seen Sweet November? I'm dying to learn how to make the triangle-shaped scarves that Charlize Theron sports throughout the movie. A web-site is selling them for $298, handmade by Theron's mom, but as a beginning knitter, I want to learn to make it on my own. Any ideas on where to begin?

Try going back a couple of pages and look at the posting "sweet rip off" There were some postings in there about the shawls from the movie.

Yeah, I think somebody said that if you go to http://www.learntocrochet.com (or http://www.learntoknit.com, same place with two different names) the ponchos for beginners are supposed to be similar. What site is it that her mom is selling them? If I see what they look like, I can probably give you better advice.

Charlize's mom things are being sold on purple skirt.

Here's where you can find all about it: http://www.purpleskirt.com/focus/whatsnew1.cfm

Yup - that is where I saw them also (Purpleskirt.com). I checked out the poncho on learntoknit.com and it is quite similar. The pattern seems fairly simple, except that I don't know what yarn over, knit 2 together through back loop means. I've literally just learned to knit and purl and I've only made a few scarves. The whole gauge thing is new to me and all of these abbreviations are scary!

Honey,

Try picking up one of those basic knitting books at your local craft store. They're pretty cheap and have titles like "learn to knit in one day". They're good for teaching the basics and they explain alot of the abbreviations.

A gauge is important to do, otherwise your pieces may not fit and then you've wasted a lot of time and effort. The abbreviations can be scary at first, but these stitches are not as hard as they sound.

Checking gauge is definitely very important when you're making sweaters or other garments. But for an item like a scarf or a shawl, you don't need to worry about gauge, especially if you're going to block it when you're done. If it's lacey, blocking the finished piece is essential. There was a good discussion about blocking going on this chatboard a few months ago.



--lynda

Again I must admit to being a bit ignorant. Blocking???? I've taught myself the basics thus far (and by this, I mean knit, purl, cast on, cast off, fringe). What is blocking?

Blocking is when you wash (or spray dampen, or steam) a knit piece to shape and set it. With shawls and lace I find it's pretty important, but super easy.

Get a bazillion pins and vacum a large space of carpet. wash the shawl (soak, no agitation, spin all the water out in the machine if possible), spread out on the floor, and pin that sucker out to shape. Lace needs to be streched A LOT, so keep moving the pins out until you're happy with it. Protect from kitties. Leave until it's completely and totally dry, unpin and you have a bautifully shaped shawl!

Triangle shawls are super easy. the easiest one I know of is to cast on 3 stitches, knit every row, and increase at the edges every other row until you can't take any more and it's huge. Voila, triangle.

Yarn over basically means wrap the yarn over the right hand needle, leave it there, and the next go-round, treat it like a stitch. It makes a hole (and is the basis of all lace). K2tog through the back loops means that instead of putting the righthand needle through the loops on the left hand needle from left to right (the normal way) you put it through from right to left (through the back). It twists the stitches.

About.knitting.com should have some pretty good explanations of these (tho I haven't checked recently).

Also if you want cute shawl patterns, go look up some library books. Folk Shawls, Gathering of Lace, and a bunch of Elizabeth Zimmerman and Meg Swansen's books have shawls in them that are easy and pretty.

I'm all of a sudden on a shawl kick, although I rarely wear them. They're fun though.

Jen