This is the Drop Stitch Schrug (Shrug). It's a Daily Knitter free pattern. It looks so cool and once I got a handle on the pattern it is working up fairly quickly. I am on row 52. I was originally working off of sticky notes for each of the six rows. When there are multiple rows in a pattern I like to divide them with the row numbers to be stitched. If I write it down, it helps me learn the pattern. There are 6 rows to this pattern and each one has many rows to work. It got too complicated so I made the chart below. The colors keeps my eye on row I am working on and the right side has the row numbers that I mark off when I am finished. I also made the rows that I need to increase red numbers. Increases need to be made every 8 rows and when I have made shrugs before, I have forgotten or accidentally increased too many times. I think I can now leave my work and return and know where I need to start. A little crazy, I know, but it is helping!
Mercerization is a treatment for cotton fabric and thread mostly employed to give cotton a lustrous appearance. The series of processes was devised by John Mercer of Great Harword, Lancashire, in the middle of the 19th century, but didn't become popular until improvements were made to the process in 1890.
Mercerized cotton, also known as pearl or pearle cotton, is cotton thread (or cotton-covered thread with a polyester core) that has been treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The thread is given a caustic soda bath that is then neutralized with an acid bath. This treatment increases luster, strength, affinity to dye, resistance to mildew, and also reduces lint. Cotton with long staple fiber lengths responds best to mercerization.
