Contains:
- Knitting pattern for simple starry shawl
- Swatching instructions and color options worksheet included
- Suitable for advanced beginners
Materials you need at home:
- Approximately 740 m of fingering-weight yarn in three colors (C1/C2/C3): 245/175/320 m. Sample was knit in Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (100% superwash single-ply wool). In the sample shown, C1 is light, C2 is dark, and C3 is medium
- 3.75 mm/US 5 needles, or size needed to obtain gauge
- Tapestry needle for weaving in ends
On summer nights on our old farm, we would lay out in the field on a frayed quilt while constellations bent over us—some bright, others dim, and all seeming both light-years away and in the palms of our hands. Milky Way evokes the comfort and warmth of those nights under the dark sky. A sideways-knit, garter stitch triangle featuring slip-stitch stars, Milky Way uses three shades of yarn and a shifting interplay of color. Requiring just simple increases, decreases, and slipped stitches, it’s an easy knit that will let you focus on your own stargazing.
Skills required: increasing, slipping stitches, decreasing
Finished measurements: approximately 162.5 cm wide and 56 cm deep
Gauge: 24 stitches to 10 cm of blocked pattern stitch (see swatching instructions). Gauge is not critical but will affect the finished size and meterage required
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.