If I ever even think about using the sewn bind-off for the long end of a shawl again, please, please, please tell me not to be such an idiot!!!
Sigh. I'm making the Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West, as I thought this would be a great way to use up some grey wool that I have in my stash. I have a cone of it, and I've used quite a bit making this scarf, and it's going to turn out to be quite a nice, understated scarf in this yarn. I've been knitting diligently and monogamously on this shawl, and I really quite like it.
At the end of the pattern, it says that Stephen used Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind-off and since this is one of my own favourite bind-offs, I thought it would be a fantastic idea to use it also. To cast off around 400 stitches....
Yeah. Not so much. For this bind off, you have to cut the yarn and thread it through the stitches using a darning needle. Did I mention the shawl has ended up with around 400 stitches? That means a looooooooooong piece of yarn being threaded through each stitch twice. It also means a lot of this:
A big knot in the yarn (and this is one of the small ones!), every two or three times that I pull it through the stitches. :( Which I then have to very carefully untangle, because the yarn seems to be a short staple wool, and snaps apart quite easily when any force is applied.
I've done around 40 stitches so far, and needed to take a short computer break before my head exploded. I'm trying to keep zen about it, because the more annoyed I get, the harder I tug on the yarn, and the more likely it is to knot, or even break.
Sigh. Never, ever again. Why didn't I just think to do a lace bind-off instead??? I love the sewn bind-off, but I'm thinking maybe it's not so appropriate for large amounts of stitches.....
1 comment:
That's a pretty shawl but eek! Think I'd have gone for the lace bind-off option as well. :-)
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