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.]

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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