Projects
Superscript Shawl: Headnotes and Footnotes
Dear Ann,
Yay! My Superscript Shawl is almost done.
Alas! My Superscript Shawl is almost done.
This pattern has been sweet to me the whole way through the four official weeks of our Superscript Shawl knitalong. It’s been a mellow, easy-knitting buddy for cars, trains and planes, and then a fun weekend of adventure that I call Kay Remembers Crochet.
And voila: here she is, my Superscript, all growed up and nearly ready to be on my neck every day until the first muggy days of summer 2020.
The Embellishment Journey
If you’re knitting Superscript right now as part of our knitalong gang, or if you’re one of the many who bought 3-skein sets of Amores Raíz and are hoarding it for Superscripts of the Future, please don’t hang back when you get to the embellishment part. This is the fun part, and you’re so close to the triumphant finish line.
I-Cord Bars
I love i-cord. I love it so, so much. Amor came up with a use for it I hadn’t considered: as vertical bars that outline the color blocks and give the Superscript Shawl satisfying heft and structure.
After the knitting but before the i-cord bars: the blocks are beautiful but a touch indistinct.
Amor’s video tutorial tells you everything you need to know.
When picking up stitches for the i-cord, every once in a while you might miss a stitch, but you can detect this really easily by looking at your needle. Go back and pick UP that pupper.
Full disclosure: as a veteran i-cord attacher, I have strong muscle memory for the version where you knit the last stitch of the i-cord and the picked-up stitch together through the back loops, instead of via slipping and passing the slipped stitch over, as Amor prescribes. So if you find the psso method to be fiddlesome, try K2togTBL, for an equally effective result.
As Amor instructs, you want to pick up the very last stitch. tidy!
The i-cord bars are so satisfying. Structure! Heft!
Crochet Inlays
Next up: the diagonal lines of applied crochet chains.
Yes, it’s crochet, but Amor Esperanza has got this for us. Her video tutorial shows us everything we need to know, and nothing we don’t, with a quiet competence I found both elevating and energizing.
This part was fun even though I was using my emergency keychain crochet hook instead of a full-size model.
Here are some inlaid crochet chains for you.
A note that will only make sense if you’re knitting Superscript: I did all of my crochet inlays the second way that Amor teaches, which is invisible on the back. It might be a little slower, but I love the reversibility of a clean WS when it’s possible.
The crochet inlays are solidly attached, yet floating on the RS of the fabric: magic!
Since I was in Nashville while I was finishing Superscript, I kept walking by MDK’s supply of Amores Raíz. All the colors I didn’t get to use in my Superscript—I want to knit them!
Amor’s dyeing style is bold and subtle—at the same time. It’s extraordinary. I had to pick out three more skeins and smuggle them home with me.
Three fresh-faced skeins of Amores Raíz, heading to New York. From left: Poignant, Linger, and Constellation.
What Am I Going to Knit?
I’m torn. I would happily cast on a second Superscript Shawl immediately. After all, the pattern has two versions, and now that the way it works is familiar, I could jump in with both feet on Version A.
With Rhinebeck coming up, I need a true Just Keep Knitting project in my go-bag.
I’m thinking: how amazing would Kirsten Kapur’s Colorwash Scarf be in two—or three!—of Amor’s liquid-y solids instead of the multi-colors used in the original Colorwash.
I think I’m about to find out.
Love,
Kay
A Plethora of Postscripts to Superscript
P.S. Superscript Shawl Knitalong-ers. Get those photos posted—either in the MDK Lounge or on Instagram, with our #mdksuperscriptalong hashtag. This weekend, Team MDK will pick our prize winners, including the lucky knitter who will receive the Grand Prize—four skeins of Amor’s luxurious Crave Caravan—the amount needed for a Corrugated Shawl—plus a copy of MDK Field Guide No. 5: Sequences containing the pattern.
P.P.S. If you’re sad about missing this knitalong, stay tuned! We’ve got an announcement coming up soon for a knitalong with lots of options for quick, fun knits, for holiday- or self-gifting.
P.P.P.S. Have you seen the free video mini-series up at Knit Stars? The cupped tassels video tutorial by Martha Wissing has me thinking about upping my embellishment game for Superscript. I know my slingshot Loome tool can handle it. Can I? We loved being part of Knit Stars 3.0: North Stars Rising, in 2018. Knit Stars 4.0: Alpaca My Bag features bright lights of the knitting community offering fun and fresh perspectives on knitting. Tap here and our affiliate link takes you to a sign-up page where previews, free patterns, and cute alpacas await.
Lovely! Beautiful details and color. Congratulations on almost completing it. FYI, I have a mountain of almost completed projects. 🙂
As soon as I saw all those ends waiting to get dealt with, I thought there must be some way to turn them into tidy tassels. They are in perfect position, it would be the icing on the cake!
It is fantastic! And I love the points you make about a shawl having some heft. Will you be wearing it to Rhinebeck this weekend? See you soon!
Yes! It’s all blocked and I’m tasseling as we speak!
What is the name of the beautiful blue and turquoise book? I can’t read the title but I’m so curious. Lovely photo!
I think it’s The Pillar from Lazy Sunday post.
It’s the same author (Stephen Gill) and a similar theme (photographs taken at night by a motion-sensing camera), titled Night Procession. Spooky, compelling, gorgeous. Ann is a collector now, I reckon.
The table was pre-styled with the book so I just scootched it over.
Stunning. Adore your second color combination as well. Wishing those colors looked good on me. They are just so perfect – and satisfying – together. Martha Wissing’s patterns caught my eye years ago. I love her tees. So glad to be reminded. Chloe
Your Superscript is stunning!! Can’t wait for the next KAL;) I’ve already started!
That looks lovely! I’m only just over 1/2 way knitting mine. I didn’t read the pattern carefully enough and was knitting the initial repeats as all of the rows, not just the last 6. It was only when you wrote the post about keeping track of the increases that I had an “oh s**t!” moment. So, I had to rip back what was becoming a comically long first section. (I was also running out of yarn!) I then managed to repeat the same mistake on the second section, but caught it a bit sooner. I guess that’s what happens when you’re knitting on the train at 6:45 am! I am hoping to get mine done by the end of the month, though I am contemplating skipping the crochet inlay because I like how the channels look as is.
Oh Kay – it is SO SO SO beautiful! I generally don’t understand why people make multi-colored projects (don’t they know you could do it in a lovely solid?!?), but this one has me convinced. I want to make the exact same version in the exact same colors as you.
I’ve just started winding my yarn! I’m really looking forward to this!
You are in for a grand time!