I'm such a big fan

Literally and figuratively!

This shawl was such a fun knit! The fan stitch pattern looks complicated but is really quite easy to memorize. Which is good, since you knit about a thousand of them. Okay, more like 28. But it seems like a thousand. I mean that in a good way. Really.

I made two mods to the pattern, one minor, one major. First, I purled the first and last stitch of all WS knit rows to make it easier to pick up stitches later (I hate picking up through garter stitches!).

Second, the original pattern is knit modularly, which = weave-in hell, so I knit it diagonally to make things a little easier. Here's how I did it:

1. After Row 28 of Fan 1, I bound off one stitch (i.e. passed the right stitch over the left stitch), so there was one stitch left on the needle.
2. Picked up 24 more stitches along the left side of Fan 1, which gave me 25 stitches.
3. Used the outside end of the ball and the working yarn to do a long-tail cast-on of 25 stitches.
4. That gave me 50 stitches total for Fan 3. Knitted the fan as written to Row 28.
5. Repeated from step 1 for Fans 6, 10, 15, 21, and 28.
   

This gave me the first diagonal row of 7 fans. From there:

1. Did a long-tail cast-on of 25 stitches for Fan 2.
2. Picked up 25 stitches along the right side of Fan 1.
3. This gave me 50 stitches total for Fan 2. Knitted the fan as written.
4. After Row 28 of Fan 2, I bound off one stitch, so there was one stitch left on the needle.
5. Picked up 24 more stitches along the left side of Fan 2, which gave me 25 stitches.
6. Picked up 25 more stitches along the right side of Fan 3,which gave me 50 stitches total for Fan 5. Knitted the fan as written to Row 28.

Lather, rinse, repeat!

More of the same with the half fans along the top, again to minimize the end-weaving:

1. Knitted the first half-fan as written to Row 18.
2. Picked up 14 stitches down the left side. (These 14 stitches remain unknit until the garter border. You can place them on waste yarn or a stitch holder if you like.)
3. Picked up 50 stitches for the next half fan.
4. Repeated from step 1 until all half fans were complete, then cut yarn.
5. With RS facing, joined new yarn at the right side and knit across, picking up 14 stitches on the remaining halves of fans (this will make more sense when you're knitting the pattern than it does just reading it, I promise), and knitting across other stitches.
6. Knitted in garter stitch for five rows and bound off loosely.
   

There you have it! Still a lot of ends to weave in, but far, far less than the original pattern calls for.

Yarn thoughts
Malabrigo Silky Merino! Oh so soft! Oh so silky! Oh so hard to match colors! :P Three of my skeins were from the same dye lot, and there was still a noticeable degree of shade variation. I scored a fourth skein of the same dye lot from a fellow Raveler, and that turned out to be a lighter shade as well. At that point, I could have frogged the whole thing and planned out the shade variations differently, maybe even knitting it modularly in order to mix and match the colors more cohesively.

But I'm lazy.

So I just went with it. Sure, laid out on the floor, it's pretty noticeable, at least to me (and more so in person than you can see in these photos). But draped across my shoulders, it's a non-issue. Most people won't notice this little quirk, and I decided I can live with it. Quite a change from my normally anal-retentive perfectionist issues, wouldn't you say? I think the fact that Silky Merino does not take well to frogging had something to do with it! ;)

Wrap (ha!) it up
Color issues aside, I really love how this turned out! The pattern went perfectly with the Silky Merino, it blocked out to just the right size, and the fans are just so pretty! It's also nice to have a DK-weight shawl to fall between my Clapotis and sock/laceweight wraps. I can definitely see myself knitting another one of these in the future. But maybe all the same shade next time. ;)

Silky Fan Shawl
Pattern: Panda Silk DK Fan Shawl by Crystal Palace Yarns
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino, 4 skeins in Celeste
Needle: HiyaHiya Interchangeables, Size 6
Mods: Knit diagonally instead of modularly to minimize end-weaving