Cutting

Beth is going golfing this afternoon so I needed to cut before she left. Someone needed to take pictures for me!

She had many questions and I thought I would write them here because you might be thinking the same things she was.

Do you need super sharp scissors?  No I just used scissors that I bought at the dollar store.

Is it going to unravel?  No.  Knitting wants to unravel down, not side to side. Also, the yarn is Sheltand wool which has small fibres that like to grab onto other fibres.  The pattern suggested using a sewing machine and making two rows of stitching on either side of where you are going to cut.  I did not do this.  Instead I had 10 stitches for my steek instead of the 6 asked for in the pattern.

Do you have to be exactly on the right stitch when cutting?  You want to be as close to the middle as possible (I put on some markers to show the way) but if you are off one stitch it isn't the end of the world.

How do you pick up the stitches?  I am going to start at the top and pick up down to the bottom and back up the other side.  The pick up is going to be beside my increase stitches.

Here is the inside before I started.  I sometimes joined a new colour at the middle of the steek and then I didn't have to worry about working in the ends.

The scissors meeting the shawl.  I am standing at the island in our kitchen.  Not having to bend over made life much easier.

When I am cutting I am holding up the piece I am cutting to make sure that I don't cut through the other side of the shawl.  That would be a disaster.

Midway through the cutting.

Almost done.

This would look much better lying outside but it is raining right now.

Now I am going to start picking up the stitches for the border.