Help!!! Secret Pal – are you out there?
I’m done with the first part – using the Melody yarn. I still have 150 stitches on my needles and now I need to pick up 150 st of the Bamboo yarn…do I leave the Melody yarn on the needle as I do this? This seems very different than picking up stitches for socks. But maybe I’m missing something?
I’m slightly worried the answer is VERY simple and I’m going to be embarrassed when I hear the answer!
If anyone else has done this shawl and willing to help me – please don’t hesitate to comment! 🙂
Here’s how I did the pick-up work. For this I treated the circs as if they were one big long needle. Leave the Melody where it is, pretend it’s a separate needle.
I used a shorter size 8 needle to pick up the stitches. What I did was knit the 150 already on the needles, then used the new needle to pick up seven, knit those and transfer them to the existing needle, etc. So I did 7, then 7, then picked up the 150, then another 7, then the final 7. Then I joined for knitting in the round. After talking to some people who did this shawl, they said they had initially thought the instructions meant to join and THEN knit the first 150, but after re-reading they got it right — knit the 150, pick up the described stitches, and then join.
I found it easier to use the separate bamboo needle as a “crutch” because my eyes were already crossing with melody’s strands and the addi-turbos I had cast onto. I thought it would be awkward but it turned out well after I got into the rhythm of it.
Let me know if this is as clear as mud. :p Good luck!