Get a Woven Look with This Mosaic Knit Shawl

When I look at this shawl I just think about fall. I know it’s coming sometime, and on one of those crisp fall mornings it would be great to have a big cuddly shawl to wear.

The Snapdragon shawl from Berroco uses two-color mosaic knitting to make a fun woven effect on the surface of the shawl. It’s a triangular shawl worked in fine weight yarn, and one of the yarns is a multicolor, which brings a lot of depth to the design without making it any more difficult to work. The fringe adds a fun touch and it’s super easy to do: you just drop a few stitches when the knitting is done, making fringe that’s actually loops.

This design does involve reading a chart, so it’s not as easy as mosaic knitting can get, but it’s still not too difficult. You only work with one color per row, and you change colors every row (working across and back counts as a row), slipping stitches as you go to bring the other color up into that row. And once you get going the pattern makes logical sense such that you might not have to rely on the chart much once you get going.

The shawl looks plenty cozy as it is, but I’m also thinking about how a worsted weight version would be for winter. If you don’t alter the design to account for bigger gauge you’d have basically knit a giant triangular blanket, which sounds pretty nice for those cold days that are no doubt coming, hard though that may be to believe right now.

If you’re new to mosaic knitting or just want to try some more patterns, check out my roundup of mosaic knitting designs. Every time I think about mosaic knitting I wish I did more of it because it’s such a fun and effective technique for adding graphical designs to a knitting project.

You can find this free pattern on the Berroco website.

[Photo: Berroco.]

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Many times when I write these posts I will say something like “you can use any yarn you want” or “this would be a great stash-busting project.” That’s just how my mind works. And my stash, too, since I probably have sweater quantity of two or three yarns at most, but tons of singles and odd balls and leftovers.

Blankets are generally a really good way to use up those bits, but in this case, I think you’re going to want to plan it out a bit better.

Looking at photos of the Color Study Blanket from Purl Soho, it looks like it’s made with two yarns held together, and that block in the center is worked with one of each color from the adjoining sides to make a mixed up color.

But that’s not actually how it’s done. This is three separate colors (four, really, with the neutrals in the corners) chosen form a yarn with an expansive palette so they play off each other. The project calls for a worsted weight superwash wool, which is a great choice for a blanket that’s both warm and washable.

This pattern was originally designed by Laura Ferguson and was updated by Hiromi Glover. It is worked in one piece in garter stitch intarsia, which is a great way to learn the intarsia technique if you don’t already know it. It comes in crib or throw sizes.

Despite the introduction to this post, I am going to go ahead and say that, yes, of course you could do this blanket with scraps or odd balls or even just choose five colors that don’t blend together so easily. But I really do love the look of the color play, and I think it would be worth your time to find colors that play well together to get a similar effect.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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