Iron Horse is a small shawl/neckwarmer perfect for getting ride of stray balls of yarn taking up place in your knitting basket. The shawl is knitted in two contrasting colors; Color A and Color B, and you'll need more of Color B since that color makes up the lace border. It can be knitted in only one color, or the stockinett part in one color and the lace border in a different color. It can even be knit with one skein alpaca and one skein mohair. Only your stash sets the limit. For the sample shawl I used one skein of black Drops Alpaca (18o meters per 50 gram) and under 300 meters of blue Kampes 1-ply wool (6oo meters per 100 gram), but I also knitted one test shawl in only Drops Alpaca (brown/purple). Yarn: Color A \~ 180 meter (Fingering weight) Color B \~ 300 meter (Lace weight) Needles: 3mm (8o cm) circular needles or whatever needles you need to obtain a 22 stitches per 10 cm gauge. If you are a hard knitter you can try to go up to 3,5mm needles. Size: 51 x 110 cm blocked Other: 4 stitchmarkers, tapestry needle Skills needed: yarn over, decreasing, following charts
Abbreviations:
K2tog - Knit two stitches together. Stitch is slanting to the right YO - Yarn over SKP - Slip one stitch as if to knit, knit one, pass the slipped stitch over the slipped. Stitch is slanting to the left. S2KP - Slip two stitches together as if to knit, knit one, pass thw two slipped stitches over the knitted one. Decresed two stitches, the middle one is showing. RS - Right side Ws - Wrong side \* \* - Repeat instructions between asterisks Notes: The shawl is made up by two triangles, knit from the top down. At the first half of the shawl, increases are made by a yarn over after the first two border stitches, before and after the center stitch and before the last two border stitches. On the wrong side the first and last two stitches are knitted, all others are purled. On the second half you will increase 6 times for each stripe (4 on RS and 2 on Ws). The right side is knitted as the first half, and the second is knitted like so; k2, YO, purl to last marker, YO, k2.
Directions:
First half:
Cast on 9 stitches with Color A. Row 1: Knit all stitches Row 2: k2, place marker, k2, place marker, k1, palce marker, k2, place marker, k2 Row 3: k2, YO, k2, YO, k1 (the center stitch), YO, k2, YO, k2 Row 4: k2, purl to last marker, k2 Switch to Color B (This is called a 4-Stitch Increase Stripe, or 4-IS) Row 5: k2, YO, k to first center marker, YO, k1, YO, k to last marker, YO, k2 Row 6: k2, p to last marker, k2 SwitchColorA Row 7: k2, YO, knit to center stitch, YO, k1, YO, knit to last marker, YO, k2 Row 8: k2, purl to last marker, k2 Repeat row 5-8 until you have 13 stripes of Color A, and 12 stripes of Color B (109 stitches in total)
Second half:
This half begins with Color B (This is called a 6-Stitch Increase Stripe, or 6-IS) Row 1: k2, YO, k to first center marker, YO, k1, YO, k to last marker, YO, k2 Row 2: k2, YO, purl to last marker, YO, k2 SwitchtoColor A: Row 3: k2, YO, knit to center stitch, YO, k1, YO, knit to last marker, YO, k2 Row 4: k2, YO, purl to last marker, YO, k2 Switch to ColorB: Row 5: k2, YO, knit to center stitch, YO, k1, YO, knit to last marker, YO, k2 Row 6: k2, YO, purl to last marker, YO, k2 Repeatrows $3^{-6}$ until you have 26 stripes of each color (including the stripes from the first half!) 271 stitches in total. Lace Edging: Knit this is Color B Row 1: k2, YO, knit to marker, YO, k1, YO, knit to marker, YO, k2 Row 2: k2, purl to last marker, k2 (this is how you will knit all even rows unless said otherwise) Row 3: k2, YO, k1, YO, SKP, k1, \* k2tog, YO, k3, YO, SKP, k1 \* repeat until 3 stitches before center stitch. K2tog, YO, k1, YO, k1 (center stitch), YO, k1, YO, SKP, k1, \* k2tog, YO, k3, YO, SKP, k1 \* repeat until 3 stitches before last marker, K2tog, YO, k1, YO, k2 Row 5: k2, YO, k1, YO, SKP, YO, S2KP, \* YO, K2tog, YO, k1, YO, SKP, YO, S2KP \* repeat until 3 stitches before center stitch. YO, K2tog, YO, k1, YO, k1 (center stitch), YO, k1, YO, SKP, YO, S2KP, \* YO, K2tog, YO, k1, YO, SKP, YO, S2KP \* repeat until 3 stitches before last marker, YO, K2tog, k1, YO, k2 Row 7: k2, YO, k3, YO, SKP, k1, \* k2tog, YO, k3, YO, SKP, k1 \* repeat until5 stitches before center stitch. K2tog, YO, k3, YO, k1 (center stitch), YO, k1, YO, SKP, k1, \* k2tog, YO, k3, YO, SKP, k1 \* repeat until 5 stitches before last marker, K2tog, YO, k3, YO, k2 Row 9: k2, YO, k5, YO, S2KP, \* YO, k5, YO, S2KP \* repeat until 5 stitches before center stitch. YO, k5, YO, k1 (center stitch), YO, k5, YO, S2KP, \* YO, k5, S2KP \* repeat until 5 stitches before last marker, YO, k5, YO,k2 Row 11: k2, YO, k2, S2KP, k2, YO, k1 ,\* YO, k2, S2KP, k2, YO, k1 \* until 9 stitches left. YO, k2, S2KP, k2, YO, Kk2 Row 13: k2, YO, k2, S2KP, k2, YO, k1 , \* YO, k2, S2KP, k2, YO, k1 \* until 9 stitches left. YO, k2, S2KP, k2, YO, k2 Row 15: k2, \* YO, k7, YO, k1 \* repeat until last stitch, k1 Row 16: Knit all stitches Row 17: Bind off: K2tog, \* pass stitch back to left needle, K2tog
Center Border Edge
Mathematics for smaller/bigger shawl:
Note: I have not tried to make the shawl bigger myself, so I do not know how much more yarn you will need to make it bigger. This shawl can be made bigger or small by adding or decreasing 4-increase stripes (4-IS) and 6-increase strips (6-IS). Since the lace pattern repeat is 8 stitches you need to increase the stitch count by 16 if you want it to add up (since you have to increase with 8 stitches on each side of the center stitch). That means that you will have to knit one $4$ -IS and two6-IS. The original shawl is made up by 25 4-IS and 27 6-IS $(25\times4+27\times6)$ PLUS $^9$ $2+2$ border stitches, 1 center stitch, and $_{2+2}$ original stitches on each side of the center stitch). $100+162+9=271$ Each one $4{\cdot}15+$ two 6-IS add ${\sim}2,5\mathsf{c m}$ to the length so if you want to have your shawl 10 cm bigger from top to bottom you have to knit an additional four rows of $4$ -IS and eight rows of 6-IS: $29\times4+35\times6+9=335$ $335-10-5=320$ $320\div16=20$ lace repeats The 10 and 5 is the $5\times2$ stitches not in the lace repeat and the 4 border stitches plus 1 center stitch. The additional 4-IS and 6-IS should of course be knitted with the other 4-IS and 6-IS so the shawl's curvinglookssmooth.
