Another handspun shawl is finished! I’m particularly happy with this one, mostly because of the nice combination of colours, gradients, and pattern. The pattern is Fade and Flip by Amanda Schwabe, the same designer who created Two which I knitted a while ago. With the right yarn combination, this kind of reversible pattern can truly shine.
I selected two handspun yarns to create this shawl. Both were light fingering weight, about 600 meters, and both had subtle gradients. The pink one, my Midwinter Unicorn, had a long gradient from pinkish to greenish (but there was always a bit of pink in there), and the other one, Smaug’s Topaz, meandered between blue and green. I expected them to play well together, but it’s always a surprise how exactly these things will turn out.
Flip and Fade is a reversible pattern. In this case, you knit garter stitch during the entire shawl, alternating between your two yarns. This creates a background of narrow stripes, over which traveling stitches create a pattern, one colour on one side, and the other colour on the other side.
This pattern is fun to knit, and despite the monotomy of the garter stitch, it stays interesting because of the celtic knot patterns. After a while, you get used to the symbols/abbreviations for the pattern parts, and you don’t have to look at the pattern as much anymore.
After a lot of knitting, I was done! I was completely out of the pink yarn, and had a bit of the blue yarn left. I was lucky enough that I ran out of yarn in a good spot in the pattern.
The resulting shawl is a rectangular triangle, so when wearing it, it is asymmetrical. It’s warm and toasty because of the garter stitch. I decided not to wash and block it, because I like the texture as it is.
I’m looking forward to some colder weather, so that I can use it 😉
