Check out this Fun Knitalong to Start the Year

Actually, it doesn’t start until Feb. 1, which is maybe even better than starting at the beginning of the year, but this new knitalong from Berroco looks like a lot of fun and a great way to build some skills if you’re not already comfortable with colorwork and short rows.

The knitalong is for Mrs. Watson, a fun two-color Garter Stitch shawl designed by Martina Behm. It uses two colors of Ultra Alpaca Light, which is a lovely yarn and comes in a lot of different colors.

To be an official part of the knitalong, though, you can use any Berroco or partner yarns (that’s LANGYARNS, Amano Yarn, James C. Brett or Ístex Lopi). Knitalongs are a fun way to learn new techniques and be part of a virtual knitting group where everyone is making the same thing but the results are always different.

Have you ever taken part in a knitalong? I’d love to hear what you made and how it was.

[Photo by Martina Behm, via Berroco.]

Sometimes when I’m scrolling through Ravelry a pattern will catch my eye as much because of the name as the look of the design (which is a little hard to see in those little thumbnails sometimes, anyway).

So it was with the Stellify shawl by Paola Albergamo. Stellify means to turn into a star, and the name and the story behind the shawl come from the story of Ariadne. The better known part of her story is that she helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur, but he then abandoned her. What comes after in many stories is that Dionysus found her, fell in love with her and later married her.

When he threw her jeweled crown into the sky, the Corona Borealis constellation was formed.

What does all this have to do with shawl knitting?

The shawl itself looks like it has a scattering of stars on it, as if it, too, has been stellified. The shawl begins with an I-cord tap and is shaped into a triangular shawl with both lateral and central increases. I-cord edging is incorporated into the sides, and the colorwork is done with mosaic knitting, which means this shawl is easier than it looks.

Mosaic knitting has you working with just one color per row, slipping stitches that appear in the other color to make the colorwork visible. Even better for people new to this kind of colorwork, the pattern includes written and charted instructions throughout so it should be easy to follow along.

The pattern comes in two sizes (the larger one is shown here) and calls for two colors of fingering weight yarn. It looks great in black and yellow, but don’t miss the other projects on Ravelry to see other fun and beautiful color options.

You can find the pattern in English and Italian on Ravelry.

[Photo: Paola Albergamo]

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