The Knitted Raven

I have been a fan of Holly Chayes and her work on Shawl Geometry for some time. It was several years ago that I discovered her blog and became fascinated with the formula for the crescent shawl. Almost all the shawls I made over a 2-3 year period were constructed using this formula as a base. Recently I went back to her blog and discovered she has several books out.  The second book was of particular interest to me as I am trying to better understand the top-down construction of garments with circular yokes. I was looking for a stash busting project to use up yarn leftover from two past sweater projects and had already decided on a shawl of some kind. When I saw the formula for the Octagon Donut, I knew I had found my inspiration! The Octagon Donut formula starts with a cast-on large enough for the desired “hole” in the middle, followed by regular increases, spaced evenly around the circle. As Holly points out, the first thing you need to do is make a gauge swatch so you know how