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A couple of years ago we found an old shrug in our summer house. It was knitted, in a stitch pattern I couldn't dechiffer. But the construction was simple, just a tube, that opens in the central part. It was used and darned several places ( I should have shown you a photo, but at the moment, I don't find it). I have been wanting to make a new one, but was not sure what stitch pattern to use. I didn't necesarrily want the same as in the old one. And then, in a blog post by Woolly Wormhead, there it was,
star stitch, to be worked in the round and flat. (Later, she has published a hat pattern using this stitch pattern,
Star beanie.)
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In Norwegian, we call this garment a "sjelevarmer ", or soul warmer. In English, I understand it's called a "
shrug" (not sure which word is more logical). I think I've seen somewhere that it's also called "soul warmer" in German.
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My shrug measures 106 cm, the sleeves beeing 26 cm long, and the back part 54 cm, sleeve circumference 31 cm.
I used Cascade Wool 220, left overs from my
Owls. It's a simple pattern, although the stitches are a bit time and yarn consuming. I used approximately two and a half skein, whereas for the Owls sweater I used three and a half.
This is how you do it:
Cast on 60 sts on needles 4 mm, working in the round. Garter sts for ten rounds. Increase 12 sts, then start the star stitch pattern.
1st round: *K1, make star; repeat from * to end of round.
2nd round: Knit 71 sts (the last sts of this round will be part of first star on next round.
3rd round: *make star, K1; repeat from * to * end with k2
4th round: Knit
5th round: K 1, *make star, k 1, repeat from * to * end with make star
Repeat rounds 2 -5 til sleeve is as long as you wish. End with round 2 or 4.
After dividing for back, you will do the star rows like this:
- k2 * make star, k 1 * till end of row, end with k 2
and
- k4 * make star, k 1* till end of row, end with k 4
This means you'll increase 1 sts in one side and 2 sts in the other side. I can't figure out how to explain this easily, but once you've got the hang of the pattern and get to that point, you'll see what I mean. The other rows will have to be purled, obviously.
When back is long enough (try it on as you go), you decrease these 3 sts and go back to working in the rounds. End with a knit round. Then knit another round while decreasing 12 sts, and end with a garter sts cuff as you started with.
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Note on how to make the stars: I followed Wolly's tutorial, but had to look up the abbreviation yrn. I had some troubles getting this, because when I did what was explained, I ended up with a normal yarn over. But the stars turns out ok, I think. Maybe this has to do with me beeing a continental knitter? I don't know, but as long as the result is ok, I'm happy. So in my words, as star would be made like this: k3tog and leave sts on needle, yo, knit same 3 sts together again
Well, today you'd need to warm more than your soul - it's been minus 15 degrees below zero, and getting colder... But it's certainly beatiful: