Knit Up a Botanical Beauty of a Shawl

If you’re looking for a showstopper project to knit this summer/winter (depending where you are in the world), take a peek at KC Knitting Co’s Stromanthe shawl.

This lovely leaf-covered design uses sportweight yarn and stranded colorwork to evoke the leaves of the tropical Stromanthe sanguinea plant. This intense colorwork is countered with a Garter Stitch edging.

The original yarn used was a blend of wool and linen, making it perfect for warmer weather, but you can make it with a 100 percent wool yarn, too, if you want something warmer.

Either way you can learn more and get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Anna-Lisa Miller via Ravelry.]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a fun project to play with brioche knitting, check out the My Buddy knitting pattern/recipe from Casuarinagirl on Ravelry.

This project doesn’t include a brioche tutorial, so it’s good to know the basics, including how to increase and decrease, but you can always practice on a swatch before you start the project if you want.

The design is meant to be flexible for the yarn you have and what size and shape of project you want to make, from a skinny neck scarf to a asymmetrical triangle or a more classic triangular shape.

The shape you end up with will depend on how often you increase (and then decrease on the other side). The pattern mentions increasing every fourth, fifth or six row (and the one shown increases and decreases every sixth row) but you can do it even more or less often depending on the shape you’re looking for an how much yarn you want to use.

You can work to whatever depth you would like, or use almost half of the yarn you have set aside for the project and begin decreasing.

When it comes to yarn, she used three strands of yarn held together to make a super fluffy shawl, but you can work it with whatever yarn and needles you like to make a wrap that’s all your own.

If you are new to brioche (or to increasing and decreasing in brioche) it might be a good idea to make a little scarf or head wrap first before diving in to the bigger pattern, just so you’re more comfortable with the technique. Or just give it a go; nothing about brioche knitting is that difficult. (But you might want to use a lifeline because I find brioche hard to rip out or fix mistakes in properly.)

You can grab the free pattern for the Buddy Wrap on Ravelry.

[Photo: Casuarinagirl]

Next Pattern:

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