Here’s a little way to calculate the maximum number of rows you can work on a shawl (top down shawls only). You need to have knitted at least 20% of your yarn to do get an accurate answer.
Triangular shawl
This calculation will work for any shawl pattern that starts at the top and has a consistent number of increases in each row. (ie. 4increases on every rightside row and 2 sts on every wrong side row)
(Examples of this type of shawl are: ‘Swallowtail’, ‘Ishbel’, ‘Aeolian’, ‘Kiri’, My ‘Dew Drops’ Shawl)
(I know these shawls have slightly different shapes, but trust me the maths works.)
You will need to know:
Number of Constant stitches in each row. (eg. Swallowtail:5, Ishbel:7, Aeolian:5or7.) (usually edge stitches on each side + centre stitch)
(If you don’t know this don’t worry too much as it doesn’t make a huge difference)
Current number of Rows worked (count the number of holes running up the middle next to thee centre st and x2).
Total yarn weight.
Yarn weight used so far (total minus what you have left).
I hope you find this page useful, I provide it free for everyone, please link to it here.
Contact me through Raverly, or email me if you have any questions.
P.s. Don’t blame me if the answer doesn’t work out for you, I provide this script working to the best of my knowledge, free to everyone.
(c) Bex Hopkins 2010, please do not attempt to steal this script.
If you would like to know how this is calculated please contact me and I can give you the details.