Knitting Dopers: I need help interpreting a pattern

Cafe Society
1

I’m making a Christmas gift for my step-mom, knitting a looped fringe shawl from a free pattern in Knit Picks magazine.

I don’t quite understand how to finish it. Using round needles, you cast on 170 stitches, placing markers after the first five stitches and before the last five. Then you K2Tog each row until you only have one stitch between the markers. Now, quoting the pattern:

I’m interpreting the “last stitch” that you run the yarn through, creating the tail, to be the last stitch in between the markers. I tried a test swatch and the last five stitches unravel to create the fringe, but what do I do with the first five stitches still on the needle? The pattern doesn’t say to cast off, and removing the needle and unraveling them doesn’t seem to create the proper fringe.

If I can’t get this right I’ll just continue to K2TOG all of the stitches and forget the fringe, but I’d like to do it right. I’ve called Knit Picks and they weren’t clear either on how to fix it.

2

Yes, sounds like they screwed up a little. You are correct, the “last stitch” should be that stitch in the middle–it should be the point at the bottom of the shawl. What you really need to do is fasten the yarn off somehow on that stitch, and then weave that end back up. You are supposed to unravel the first five stitches and the last five, all the way back up to the beginning, and these will form a fringe down each side of the triangular shawl.

Probably the easiest way will be to pull the yarn through the stitch, and then loop it around and pull it through again, then weave it upwards.

3

I’m done with the shawl except for how to create the fringe. I’m going to make another swatch and try again. I really wish people who make patterns would be a bit more careful!