June Bunnies Shawl Pattern: Top-Down Knit Triangle with Customizable Lace Inserts and Yarn Over Increases

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Materials: lace, fingering or sport weight yarn, about 400-500 yards for a full size shawl. You will need more yardage if you use finer yarn. This pattern is written to be easily adjusted to use the entire skein. Appropriate size knitting needles, I find circular needles the most easy to use when knitting shawls.

Examples:

The light green shawl: fingering wt. yarn, 40% angora, 40% merino, 20% nylon, 400 yards/100g - I used the whole skein, till the last yard. Needle: 3.5 mm. Shawl measures 75cm at the center spine and it is 184cm wide. Color: verde. Blue Diamante shawl: lace weight yarn, 70% merino, 20% silk, 10% cashmere, \~760 yards/100g - I used 65g 0f it, about 500 yards. Needle size: 4mm. Shawl measures 75cm at the center spine and it is 195cm wide. Colour: cobalt Both yarns can be found at Colourmart.com, the angora mix is also sold by Kingcraig Fabrics.

Construction:

This is a top-down knit triangle shaped shawl, with yarn over increases at both sides and the center of the shawl. The lace pattern can be incorporated as many times as you like it, making this shawl very easy to customize. Abbreviations: k - knit yo - yarn over

Start up:

Cast on 3 stitches using provisional cast on and waste yarn. Knit 7 rows. Pick up and knit 3 stitches along the side of the garter tab where the purl bumps are, and then pick up and knit 3 stitches from the cast on. 9 stitches on the needle. Next row: knit 3, purl 3, knit 3. Row1: k3, yo, kl, yo, k1, yo, k3. Row 2 and ALL even rows for the shawl: k3, purl till last 3 stitches, k3. Row3: k3, yo, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, yo, k3. Row5: k3, yo, k5, yo, k1, yo, k5, yo, k3. Row7: k3, yo, k7, yo, k1, yo, k7, yo, k3. You should see a triangle shape forming, with increase lines at both sides and center. Continue knitting the shawl, increasing the stitch count at the center and both sides.

Lace pattern insertions:

To determine stitch count for starting lace pattern, count the stitches between the three side stitches and center stitch. You can start the lace pattern at any stitch count, that equals 6x+1, the x being the number of times you will repeat the pattern. For example: I started lace pattern for the light green shawl, when I had 61, 97 and 127 stitches between the side stitches and center stitch. (6=6\*10+1). You can knit all 16 rows of chart each time (like my light green shawl), or for my blue one I chose to knit only the first 8 rows of chart at first insertion (starting at 91 stitches between edge and center), 12 rows at the second insertion (starting at 115 stitches) and 16 rows at third insertion (starting at 145 stitches).

Finishing and binding off:

For both shawls, after finishing the last lace part, I only did row 17 of the chart, then the wrong side row and then cast off. I have added another row - row 19 - in case you still have some yarn left and want to use it all, you would simply get a more pointy edge this way. Bind off using the ^surprisingly stretchy bind off': yarn over the opposite way from usual, knit 1, pass the yarn-over over the stitch you just knit. \*Yarn over the opposite way again, knit one, and pass both the first knit stitch and the yarn-over over the stitch you just knit. Continue from \* to the end. This bind off makes blocking the shawl very easy. Weave in the ends and soak your shawl thoroughly in warm water. Squeeze out the water and roll in towel to dry it (don't twist!). Lay it flat to open lace and pin out the ‘points', leave to dry completely before taking pins out.

Repeat the section between the bold lines for as many pattern repeats as you need to. All even rows are knit as before - knit 3, purl to last 3 stitches, knit 3 Knit rows 17 and 18 after the last lace section when finishing shawl. You can add a couple more rows in the same pattern if you still have some yarn left and wish to use all of it.

June Bunnies Shawl by Inese Andzane, silverliningknits.blogspot.com Copyright @2012 all rights reserved by Inese Andzane.