Pattern: Starting Point (Ravelry link)
Date Started: 28 December 2021
Date Finished: March 20, 2022 (I technically finished the knitting on this date, but I didn’t weave in the ends and block it until the end of April. Like a goose.)
Designer: Joji Locatelli
Yarn: Natural Fibre Arts ‘Ashes to Roses’ five skein fade on their Merino Singles base, purchased in November 2020. 100% superwash merino, 400m/438yds per 100g. They are not dying extensively at the moment, but I think they'll be back, and you can find their shop here.
Needles: Chiaogoo 4mm circulars
Finished Measurements: Approximately 180x60cm (72x23”)
The Starting Point is a large rectangular wrap that was originally released as a Mystery Knitalong in 2017. The pattern calls for five colours and breaks down approximately how much you’ll need of each in case you’re not using full skeins. Of this 500g set, I have about 180g left over.
I loved knitting this project and I’m thrilled with how it came out. I had a few false starts with the garter tab (I always do), and I got a bit confused in the first few rows of twisted rib, because I’d never done it before. Then, when I was a few inches in, I realised I’d been knitting with the wrong size needle and had to start the whole thing again. (Again.) But all of those were me problems, not pattern problems.
I found the pattern to be perfectly clear, with both written instructions and charts for the lace panels. The colours and stitch patterns are constantly changing, so the motivation to get to the next section helps keep things moving along.
The construction is super interesting. You first knit each end to a point, then join those two ends together by knitting on the side triangles. Before reading through the pattern, I assumed it was knit in separate pieces and would have to be seamed at the end, but thanks to some clever needle work and temporarily putting some edges on waste yarn or an extra needle, you never have to pick up any stitches or graft anything together. Brilliant.
Some new to me techniques in this pattern were the unusual construction and knitting in twisted rib (Purl through the back loop? Are you sure?) but otherwise I think I’d had some previous experience with pretty much everything else; basic increase and decrease shaping, eyelets, lace, etc.
When the knitting was finished, there was a bit of a hole in the centre between where the four points meet up. It could have been left as a feature, but I decided to try and cobble it together with some sort of darning technique (and very little finesse) that I definitely made up as I went along, but I think it looks fine in the end.
If I had to pick a small challenge with this project, I would say that it’s A LOT of knitting, and that after I had knit the first half, doing the exact same thing again for the second half felt like a bit of a daunting prospect. But actually I found the second half went a bit faster, or at least it seemed to, and the gorgeous size of the finished wrap is absolutely worth it. The other thing that felt a bit daunting was all the ends. Weaving them in doesn’t really bother me (although honestly I’m never 100% sure I’m doing it right) but there were an awful lot of them.
Finally, I’m lucky to have a very long shelf unit that I bought from a shop that closed down a few years ago (Textile Traders, anyone?) which lives in a back room I use for storage and acts as a fantastic blocking surface. So space for blocking wasn’t an issue for me, but getting those long edges straight and the shaping consistent was a long process that took all of my blocking tools and about twelve million dressmaking pins.
I think that’s about all I can think to tell you. I knit the entire thing exactly to pattern with no mods or changes and I couldn’t be happier. Let me know if I missed something or if you’ve got any other questions!
Okay! I hope you found that helpful! Love you, bye! xo
Comments