I Shawl You <3

Winter weather has been crazy this year! Seems like warm to cold temps. Coldest temps I’ve seen in a long time. What better to get everyone in a great knitting mood!

I wanted an easy shawl pattern to high light the handspun yarn. It was my first time that I spun a pound of fiber, I picked out an unlikely color (for me) because I tend to look at my stash and it is all blue. Pumpkin or persimmon colored Blue Faced Leicester fleece! I splurged on a pound and wanted to see how much yardage I would get from it.

I spun it up and plied it, It ended up giving me approximately 700-800 yards or so. It looked a little matt or dull to me, so my girlfriend suggested that I added a strand of something else. I picked out a spool of Sulky thread in the blendable colors, it did take 3 spools, I ran my plied yarn back through the wheel and loosely added the thread. The result gave it just enough dimension to make me happy.

Large enough to wrap around your body in the house, in a chilly office. Yet squishy enough to compress down around your neck over a coat, I am pleased with the result, nice and warm and comforting. I’m gifting this to a friend, so I’m glad to have it done.

The pattern started out to be the Boneyard shawl pattern by Stephen West, but when I started knitting it I was watching Netflix and ended up leaving the ribs out. So it ended up to be a plain shawl. It is closer to the Scrappy Prayer Shawl recipe by Cosette Cornelius-Bates

Pattern:

I kid that it is my Boneless shawl, easy, and quick.

Stich pattern: Most simple is stocking net stitch, except for edging, but you can use any pattern, just remember that you will be increasing on either side.

Think of all of the patterns you could insert! Texture, lace anything you can imagine, go super simple with a seed stitch or complex with cables and lace. Get adventurous, really going to get creative? Here is a link to some customizable knitting graph paper to print out.  I love to look through this online pattern stitch library from the craftcookie

Yarn and Needles: Anything goes, handspun, recycled yarn, thick, thin, stash,(use your stash and make it stripy), you make the choice. Use a needle size large enough to give your shawl some drape and softness. Larger needles = lacier look.

Basic idea:
odd (right side) rows knit or use your chosen pattern, even (wrong side) rows purl, except for knit the first and last two stitches of all purl rows, this gives a nice edge.

Begin here:
-cast on 5 stitches, place a marker on each side of the middle stitch
-knit row, (first row) increase on either side of marked stitch, (two increases) I like to use the lifted increase (tutorial here), but you can use your favorite, or even a yo (yarn over), if using a yarn over this gives a hole, which is very pretty.

-purl row, k2, purl across to last two stitches and knit those
-knit row, k2, place marker, increase in next 2 stitches, k1, increase in next 2 stitches, place marker, k2

now the two below rows you will repeat until you are about 4 – 5 rows away from being finished.

-k2, purl across, knit last two stitches
-k2, (marker here) inc1, knit stitch before marker and increase,slip marker, k1, slip marker, increase one, knit to one stitch before marker and increase, slip marker, k2

when you are 4-5 rows away from being done, (this way you can use up all of your yarn) knit all across both directions, I stopped increasing also.

Then bind off in a stretchy manner, I like the Russian Cast off (tutorial here)

Now go to town and create your own custom shawl!
If this helps you out, I’d love to see a photo of what your up to, send me a photo and I’ll include it here!!
email me at knittingdragonflies at gmail dot com