Half-circle or half-octagon shawl: Pattern-ish

There isn't really a pattern pattern to this, but I'm going to post the general directions.

(So far.  It's about half as long as it needs to be, so about 1/3 of the way done.)

Alethea Drexler, November 2014, edited December 2014

I knit this in stockinette with a five-stitch garter edge, but you could do all garter if you wanted, or whatever else you like.  This “pattern” just gives you the basic guidelines.

Yarn and needles: I used Aran/worsted/4 weight yarn and a US 8 36-inch circular needle.  Since this is a shawl, though, gauge is not that important.  You’ll need as much yarn as you need to make the shawl as big as you want (sorry, I knit this with a zillion partial skeins left over from other projects.  I’ll have to correct this once I’ve weighed the finished shawl).

You’ll need six stitch markers.

My increases were knit front-and-back (KFB), which creates an increase without creating a hole.  Feel free to do yarn-overs, pick up and knit the stitch in between, whatever you want.  You just need an increase.

Garter tab cast-on:

Cast on three stitches.  Knit all on both sides until you’ve knit an additional nine rows.

Pick up an additional eight stitches down the side and around the other end of the garter tab (= 11 stitches on your needle)

Beginning phase (the underlined K1 is the stitch between the markers):

Row 1: Knit 2, PM, K1, PM, K2, PM, K1, PM, K2, PM, K1, PM, K2 = 11 stitches
Row 2: Knit 5, purl 1, knit 5

Row 3: K1, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K1, SM, K1, SM, K1, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K1 = 15 stitches
Row 4: Knit 5, purl 5, knit 5

Row 5: K1, KFB, K1, SM, K1, SM, K2, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K2, SM, K1, SM, K1, KFB, K1 = 19 stitches
Row 6: Knit 5, purl 9, knit 5

Row 7: Knit all
Row 8: Knit 5, purl 9, knit 5

Row 9: Knit 1, KFB, K1, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K2, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K2, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K1, KFB, K1 = 27 stitches

Row 10: Knit 5, purl 17, knit 5

Row 11: Knit all

Row 10: Knit 5, purl 17, knit 5

From now on, you repeat the following four lines until the shawl is as big as you want.  Then you do a garter edge (continuing the increases on Row 1) as wide as you want it, and bind off.

Row 1: K1, KFB, K to stitch before first marker, KFB, SM, K1, SM, K to stitch before second marker, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K to stitch before last marker, KFB, SM, K1, SM, KFB, K to last two stitches, KFB, K1

Row 2: Knit 5, purl to last 5, knit 5

Row 3: Knit all.

Row 4: Knit 5, purl to last 5, knit 5