Wrap Yourself in Reversible Cables

April 21, 2023 by Sarah White

I love a good wrap any time of year (though I maybe enjoy knitting them a bit more than I enjoy wearing them — I have a bunch but wear the same two or three on repeat), and the Riverwalk Wrap from Elizabeth Di Benedetto is a great project to teach you a new skill or two and give you a classic wrap you’ll love to wear all year.

The main design feature of this trapezoidal shawl is reversible cables. The cables are worked over 16 stitches and 16 rows (with a cable cross every 8 rows) and all the stitches are worked through the back loop. Once you get used to working in the back loops and begin to read your knitting, the pattern is pretty simple and intuitive.

The pattern explains how to check your gauge and determine the stitch count you need for the size of shawl you want to make. Hers is rather large (108 inches on its longest side) but you can adjust to make it bigger or smaller as you like.

It also uses an I-cord edging, which is quite minimalist and doesn’t detract or draw attention away from the main pattern. Skills you will need for this pattern include knowing how to work cables and directional decreases, working knits and purls in the back loop and working I-cord edging and as a bind off. It also uses a provisional cast on.

The designer says the pattern is recommended to be worked with an alpaca blend yarn for the slight fuzzy halo, but you can try other fibers depending on the look you are going for and how warm or light you want your finished wrap to be. This is definitely a pattern where swatching benefits you, not just to know how many stitches you’re getting per inch, but also to see how the stitch pattern looks in your chosen yarn.

You can get this pattern as a free Ravelry download.

[Photo: Elizabeth Di Benedetto.]

Have you read?

A Shawlette with a Ton of Design Options

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]