Indie dyers really keep designers on their toes. They keep cooking up new and beautiful dying techniques and I feel compelled to try and figure out how to develop a pattern that will be both a fun knit and highlight the amazing yarn. Such is the case with this new shawl. Take the amazing sock blanks that Gale from Gale’s Art keeps creating, they are beautiful works of art on their own.
She takes a knitted blank of stockinette, dyes it in a gradient and then somehow imprints fun motifs onto the fabric. The knitter then knits directly from the unraveling sock blank (or you can ball it up first if you prefer) and the motifs dissolve into a fascinating variegated yarn. Gales primary requests for this shawl were that it have lace and beads.
I think I delivered on both. It is a little tough making sure that the lace pattern has enough solid fabric to show off the yarn as it moves through its gradient, but I chose a wavy, watery pattern to move the bands of color a bit and evoke a sea feeling. And well, I might have gone a bit bonkers with the beads. The trim is intended to evoke a fishermen’s net fresh from the water with sparkling droplets caught in the mesh.
Why a sea theme? Well the sock blank that I used is named Sea Garden and I just went with it! The shawl itself is designed to use up every inch of the yarn, but it is easily adjustable. Both the main and trim motif can be repeated as many or as few times as desired based on your preferences and yardage.
As always, the crescent shape stays nicely on the shoulders and works well wrapped scarf-like. The beads actually help it hang beautifully as an almost jewelry like accessory. The beads are applied with a crochet hook, so you can put on as many or as few as suits your fancy.