This new design came about in a convoluted way. The yarn came first. I chose these two colors of Anzula’s new yarn, Gerty, at the summer TNNA trade show in June. The yarn was earmarked for a design to be released during September when Gerty was going to ship to yarn stores. The yarn came home, and it sat on my desk because I didn’t know what to do with it. I could always do a shawl, but I really didn’t want to do a shawl. The pattern name came next. I was struggling to name a new, still unreleased pattern and was bouncing ideas off my sister. She suggested Elakala, which was all wrong for that design but was definitely a great pattern name. I couldn’t get the name out of my head and went about looking for a way to use Elakala as the design inspiration.
The Elakala Falls are part of the Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia, and this design is inspired by waterfalls. Two motifs, one small and one large, create swirling, falling patterns. After working the first two charts, the motifs are inverted in color and in orientation for the second half of the cowl, creating almost a mirror image. The colorwork is fun to work and works up beautifully in Anzula Gerty.
The pattern takes 210 yards of each color and is worked on US 3 (3.25 mm) needles.
The pattern is now available on Ravelry. From now until Tuesday, October 3, the pattern is 20% off with the coupon code ‘gogogerty.’