Sherilyn KAL – Section 4 & binding off

I hope working through Section 3 went better for you than it did for me! I had a few false starts, but that’s what I get for trying to knit when I’m too tired to pay proper attention to the chart. Section 3 doesn’t have the same rhythm that Section 2 has, but you can see the pattern forming in your knitting. Which is what clued me in to the fact I’d messed up. I took some time during the day on the weekend when I was properly rested and got the section finished. In the evening I finished the last 4 rows of the shawl.

Moving from Section 3 to Section 4

The two side panels and the centre stitch are all now one section, the repeat applies to the entire row.  

Visual clues to ensure things are lined up: 

• The ‘yo, k1, yo’ stacks on top of the ‘yo, decrease, yo’ from row 43 of Section 3.
• The ‘yo, k1, yo’ will stack on top of the centre stitch.

Binding off

There are several methods you can use for binding off loosely, but remember whichever method you use it’s going to look very loose and  messy until the shawl has been blocked. That messiness — aka looseness — ensures that there is enough give along the edge to block the shawl edge into pretty points. If you bind off too tightly then you could have some difficulty with blocking the edge.

The method I decided to use is knitting two stitches together through the back loop. 

k1, slip st back to left needle, *k2togtbl, sl st back to left needle, rep from * to end.

A couple of other methods for binding off loosely

• Use a needle several sizes larger
• Use a stretchy bind off — Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off

If you’re interested in learning other methods this is a great resource

Now I need to finish binding off mine so I can take some photos of it blocking. There have been some helpful links on blocking in the Ravelry thread, if you’ve already finished and are waiting for some tips!