Over the past several months I've worked on the Ribbed Slit Shawl (LW2438) in Super Soft as my lunch break project. Our office can get pretty chilly, so I figured the shawl would be perfect to keep me warm at my desk. The shawl is knit in a K3,P2 rib: you knit 3 stitches and then purl 2 stitches on the right side rows, and purl 3 stitches and knit 2 stitches on the wrong side rows to make a stretchy rib. The slit, however, makes this shawl unique. I'll walk you through the steps in case you've gotten stuck. I made the large size shawl so all the measurements I list are for it, but adjust the inches and stitches according to the size you're making. First I knit in the rib pattern for 9 inches, then came the time to add the contrasting color yarn. Just hold the contrasting scrap yarn alongside your working yarn so that when the row is finished you can see the contrasting color. This row of color shows you where to start your slit. I then continued another 8 inches so the total length was 17 inches. To make the slit, I held the project yarn on the wrong side of the knit fabric and used a crochet hook to pull up a loop in the middle of each of the stitches marked with the contrasting color. I found it very helpful to go ahead and put the loops on a needle or stitch holder as I pulled them up, to make sure I wouldn't lose them. When all of the loops were pulled through I put them on a straight needle and knit in pattern until the slit piece was 8 inches long and the edge matched up with the main piece. I took out the contrasting color yarn as I went along, but you can do it here or at the end like the pattern says: either way works! To attach the slit to the main piece, start knitting across the main piece. When you come to the slit, hold the needle with the slit piece stitches next to the needle with the main piece stitches. Instead of knitting just into the main piece stitches, knit into one stitch from each needle -- you're doing a knit 2 together (or purl 2 together) off of two different needles. Once all of the slit stitches have been knit continue across as normal. Now your slit is done! The rest of the shawl is straight knitting in the rib pattern. I mismeasured my gauge swatch, so my shawl is knit tighter than the pattern calls for and I had to use three full skeins of Super Soft instead of just two skeins. It keeps me very warm though!
