I cast on today for the Beatrice shawl that I plan to knit for my mom. I’ve only done the first (small) pattern repeat and I’m already wondering if I really want to go through with it. I love the look of the shawl, but after examining the pattern, I realized there is an area of the pattern that requires picking up masses of stitches… and I hate picking up stitches… especially along the side of garter stitch, which this will be. The shawl also uses a provisional cast on, which I have only done once with limited success. What if I finish the whole damn thing and then I am unable to undo my provisional cast on? That would be a tragedy. On the other hand… it already looks so lovely and I have only done 18 rows. Here is a picture:
Pretty, huh? I guess I’ll work on it a little more before I make any permanent decisions about the fate of the shawl.
p.s. I did the provisional cast on by knitting into the “butts” of a chain of crochet stitches. This isn’t the method I used last time, and this was a lot easier. I’m just worried about what is going to happen when it’s time to release the stitches.
Beatrice is looking beautiful so far, but I've also had this dilemma, sigh. There's a provisional cast on tutorial on YouTube by lucyneatby. I've used it a couple of times and it works fantastically – easy to knit and unravel. Here's the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3J-sUx_whE
OMG! That is awesome!! Thanks!!
That is pretty! Provisional cast-ons are like magic once you find a good one. So fun!