Maja Tips and Tricks!

This is such a great shawl to knit!  It's very rewarding and knits up in a snap!

Here are some tips that can make it go quickly!

First of all, the pattern does not start until after you have done the set-up row and knit the next row.  So when Anni talks about rows 1 to 8 she is not including these rows.  I know this has tripped a couple of people up on their count.

As you wrap your stitches while doing the K4W you might want to really slack off on the tension.   Also make sure that you are wrapping your stitches well away from the tip of the needle as wrapping around the tip will make those stitches super tight!

When you are doing the 8-st cross stitches make sure they are all lined up and  and you are holding the stitches taut before crossing the rightmost 4 elongated stitches over the left elongated stitches.  This will ensure that cross stitches work out perfectly.

Last but not least!  A lot of folks complain that when you are wrapping the stitches that there is no circular needle long enough to accommodate all of the stitches. Right you are!  But why limit yourself to just one needle?  When you run out of space for your stitches, rather than bunching them up so that they're super tight (and therefore hard to get off of the needle on the next row) just pull out another needle and carry on!

You can see that I've gotten to the point where I'm using circular 4 needles (a bit much actually but good for demonstration purposes, two have proven to be fine).  Three needles to hold the stitches and one to knit with.  I'm using corks to make sure that no stitches are going to fall off of the needles.


So a quick demo: (Sorry about the blurry action here!)

  Holding the stitches taut.

Crossing the rightmost stitches over the left ones.

I'm still holding everything quite taut.

Just before putting the stitches from the right needle

onto the left needle.  You can see that everything is 

nicely aligned.

All of the stitches are now on the left needle.  It may

look like they are all loosey-goosey but I'm holding them

in order with the middle finger of my left hand.  This finger is

commonly referred to as "The Bird Finger".

So!   Hoping to be done in the next day or two....very excited!