A Sweet Lacy Shawl to Knit for Summer

I’m sure I’ve said more than once that I love to wear shawls all year. I especially like little shawls I can wear as an accessory in the summer or stash in my bag for when I walk into some place with too much air conditioning.

The Mood Indigo shawl designed by Shannon Danbubin for Cascade Yarns is a great choice for a summer shawl. It’s on the small side, but it’s worked in a wool and silk yarn that will give you a little but not too much warmth.

The lacy pattern stitches also allow for air flow, and make the shawl a bit more of a challenge to knit (it’s rated intermediate, but the lace patterns are written out rather than charted).

At the Ravelry link above you’ll be directed to the page on Cascade’s website where you can download the pattern for free.

[Photo: Cascade Yarns via Ravelry.]

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I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about.

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top.

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it.

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side.

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right?

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry.

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]

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