Pattern: Icarus by Miriam L. Felton, I.K. Summer 2006
Started: September 21, 2008
Finished: October 9, 2008
Yarn: Cashmere, Mama Llama, 400 yards/50 grams, 760 yards
Needles: #4 Options
Gauge: Blocked to 78″ x 31″
Notes:
I counted all the stitches to make sure I would have enough yarn, thank goodness I did (see numbers below), it helped me to know where the half way point was and how many repeats of Chart 1 to delete to have enough yarn to finish.
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Here are the numbers for the pattern as written: 61,610 total number of stitches. 1/2 way is at row 23 of the final rows of Chart 1 (19-34) – the stitch count is actually 30,808, three more than exactly half, on row 184. Note that this 1/2 way row count is different than the numerical half which is 127 rows which ends up at row 38 of the third repeat of Chart 1 and a stitch count of 14,519.

I wrote to Miriam and she mentioned the rule of thumb that at 1/2 of the rows (see above) it takes 1/3 of the yarn. The second 1/2 of the rows takes 2/3 of the yarn. For this shawl that would have been conservative, putting 1/2 way at row 97 for my amount of yarn. By counting stitches I had more accurate numbers with which to decide when to stop Chart 1.

I knit 3 repeats (rows 19-42) + 4 rows of Chart 1 plus all the border charts.

My total stitch count is 35,516. The first ball knit 21,179. My 1/2 way point is at row 4 of Chart 2. Adding another repeat of Chart 1 would have added 15,250 stitches or 36 grams of yarn, my shawl is plenty big enough, so another repeat, or following the pattern as written would have been too much.