Onerva Mine

Still knitting madly at the Onerva shawl.  I am really enjoying knitting this, and really enjoying the flexibility of this design.  I have plans for it you see.

It is now about a foot and a half across the top edge.  I have just finished the 5th design section.  I wanted 5 and then from here on, the center will be plain.  That ought to help speed up the knitting some.

It is just at the point where the rows are starting to feel long.  Sigh.  I have a long way to go.  I want to knit much wider than it is, to make it a good traditional shawl size.  Then I will start decreasing to make a great big square. With this lovely little pattern, it ought to be easily done.  Eventually, I want to add a small edging, something not too fancy, just something to crisp it off.  Or I might leave it plain. An edgings job would be to show off and highlight the centre, the centre is the star of this shawl.    

As I knit this, my first really big shawl, I begin to understand how and why the construction of shawls developed.  Medium sized centre, then several edgings.    Knitters, across time, and no matter where they were from, went with relatively small centres, first, due to the physical limitations of their needles, but also to combat the dreaded middle, the "I am so sick of this thing", of long, long rows.  

As I approach that part of knitting this, I am trying to figure out how to keep myself entertained.   It is probably going to be easy for this one.  Plenty of things to think about.