Contains:
- Knitting pattern for modular colorwork shawl
- Schematic included
- Suitable for intermediate knitters
Materials you need at home:
- Fingering weight yarn in three colors. For small shawl, 180 m of light, 340 m of medium, and 120 m of dark; for large shawl, 360 m of light, 315 m of medium, and 405 m of dark
- Two 3.75 mm/US 5 circular needles, or size needed to obtain gauge. You will be keeping live stitches on one needle while working with the other
- Point protectors for the needles not in use
- Tapestry needle for weaving in ends
Derecho - Spanish for ‘direct or straight ahead.’ A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. One of these storms hit here in the eastern United States while I was working on my second knit of this pattern.
A triangular shawl knit modularly in two directions to produce a pattern of interconnected stripes. Two circular needles are used to knit on one side at a time while keeping the other side’s stitches live.
Techniques: garter stitch, knit in front and back increase, picking up stitches
Finished Measurements: small: wingspan 129.5 cm, depth 56 cm; large: wingspan 167.5 cm, depth 81 cm
Gauge: 22 stitches and 44 rows to 10 cm in garter stitch
Note: Though conversions to the metric system have been made on this page for your convenience, the pattern itself uses American measurements.
Laura Aylor
If ‘knitting designer’ had been one of the job choices for those aptitude tests they give you in high school, I wouldn’t have spent so many years trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. My best subject in high school was math; my best classes in college were logic, drawing, and a commercial art class. After careers in computer programming/analysis and child-rearing, knit design snuck up on me, but I think it’s the perfect use of my odd skill set! I love every step of the process, from figuring out how to actually make what I’ve envisioned to putting the finishing touches on a pattern, not to mention all the knitting that comes in between!
I also love reading and hiking and spending time on Brier Island in Nova Scotia every summer.