Composition of the Stars

You may have noticed from my last post that I have a new pattern up - the Gold Star For Effort Scarf/Shalwette.  I have to say I'm rather pleased with it, especially as it took a very long time for it to get to its finished state.  Yes, I know - a designer of such simple items is perhaps not supposed to admit to taking months to get from the original concept to the finished item.  I suspect it should appear more like the apocryphal stories about Mozart and his compositional style - where we're led to believe most of his works were written as-is.  No revisions, no piano score to begin with, just pure and utter symphony (for example) in full score first time.  (He did just that, it must be said, for quite a few of his pieces...) 

No, I'm no Mozart of the shawls, I'm afraid, but I am quite interested in reliving the journey my little shawlette took to get from its starting point (from a comment by a Ravelry friend) to its final testing.

I explained in the last post how a comment about my first shawl led eventually to the latest shawl, but I thought it would be interesting to map out the journey in photos...  So here, starting from the first swatch, is a cosmically yarny tale in (mostly) picture form...

1.the confirmation that a chevron stitch creates an
excellent lower edge for a star

2. but the horizontal points at each side are proving
a tad difficult to line up properly

3. but they being to work better in a smaller form...

4. but then all definition is lost through an
overzealous eyelet effort

5. which then changes to an effort at doubling the eyelet
line which leads to a different kind of messiness

6. as does the second effort

7. but eventually the spacing begins to look neater

8. although there are still a few odd eyelets to fix

9. and the placement of a the upper double line to widen

10. there is hope and beads

11. and garter stitch

12. and enough yarn

13. for the finished item

14. which is rather dapper, even if I say so,
myself!

Twinkle, Twinkle

...Little Star shawl,

How I wonder what you... 

What you... 

...are all...

about?

Poetry.  Not my forte, as is rather eloquently shown above.  What I can do, however, is turn out little cosmic creations like this:

rain's obsessive stitchery fred sock in 'telltown'

this:

aade lõng artistic 8/2 in 'flame'

and this:

fearless fibres lightweight superwash merino sock yarn in 'sloth'

More stars than there are in the heavens.  No, wait.  That's MGM.  Part of an Amazing and Expanding Universe.   Ah.  Eric Idle may have me for nicking that...  But I suspect you get the idea...

May I present the Gold Star For Effort (or Morning Star) Shawlette.

I was inspired to create this pattern by a friend on Ravelry who told me, after they saw my Cocktail Umbrella Shawlette, that I deserved a gold star for effort.  It was an innocuous comment that never-the-less took root somewhere at the back of my noggin, which was then jogged to the front after perusing some of my favourite cocktail websites for pattern inspiration, after finding mention of the Morning Star mocktail*. And the final falling in to place came when Rain of Rain's Obsessive Stitchery contacted me about a potential collaboration - her yarn, my pattern!  That plus a little bit of sparkle at the points of each star, and voilà!  A Star (scarf/shawlette) Is Born!  (Oops - sorry Barbra!)

*The Morning Star, by the way, can be a myriad of things: a medieval spiked mace; one of the many names for the planet Venus; a town in Western Virginia; a newspaper; a song by the UK band N-Dubz, but for my purposes, however, the Morning Star is a mocktail, or mock cocktail, and is one of the lesser-known non-alcoholic drinks in the cocktail firmament (see what I did there?!!)  There are a few differences in recipes, but on the whole it seems to involve one teaspoon of sugar, and one of honey, ten fluid ounces of pineapple juice, three pineapple chunks, and mineral water to the top of the glass.

The Gold Star for Effort (or Morning Star) Shawlette is a reversible crescent scarf-shawlette, worked from the star motif edging upwards, with some beads (60 to be exact) for a bit of added (optional) bling. The body of the shawl is worked in garter stitch using short rows.

My testers and myself have used varying amounts of yarn, from 400 yards, to 453, so to be safe, I've suggested that you have at least 450 yards of your chosen yarn before you start.  (The Fred Sock by Rain that I used for the gold version is 463 yards long in total.)

 

And where can you find this little gem?  HERE, of course.  Ravelry is again playing host and this link will take you through to the pattern page, which is available to all, not just Ravelry members.  Should you wish to purchase straight away (and why not?) feel free to click on the button below.

How much?  Only €4!!  (or £3.40, $5.40, ₪19, NOK32, ¥530.24..) and for the first month you can get 25% (or 1 euro) off with the code 'twinkle'.  Just apply it when prompted at checkout!

You know you're worth it! :D