Colorwork Made Easy with the Latticework Scarf

I love the look of colorwork (and in fact wrote a whole book about colorwork knitting) but honestly I don’t do it all that often because I’m lazy.

One way to make colorwork knitting look a lot fancier without more work is to use a multicolored yarn in your pattern. That way it looks like the color changes a lot, but you’re just knitting with the same two yarns throughout.

Genius, right?

Try out this technique for yourself with the lovely Latticework Scarf from Knifty Knittings. Using a solid color for the background and a variegated for the colorwork, it makes a design that looks a lot more complicated than it is. This one is also worked in a tube so you can’t see the back and it’s super warm thanks to stranded knitting and a double-layer of scarf.

[Photo: Knifty Knittings.]

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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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