Often using a bulky weight yarn results in a rustic look. That is fantastic, if that is what you are going for. But, it was not what I was going for with this shawl. I wanted something simple and elegant. Something warm that knit up quickly, hence the bulky yarn. But I wanted it to look refined. This refinement started with the ever so soft Crater Lake yarn from Stitch Sprouts. It has wonderful hand and drape and the simple white color of Snow had me well on the way to refined. With swatching, I discovered that this hefty weight made cables with great presence even with a 2/2 cross and the softness and bloom filled the cables in to create a wonderful field of texture in the basket weave pattern.
I didn’t want to cable the whole shawl, but I needed a way to unite a stockinette body with the textured trim. I settled on a cabled selvedge which would be both beautiful and prevent the edge from rolling. Which created the challenge of making the cable run seamlessly along the top edge because the construction was top down. The solution to that is Judy’s Magic Cast on, only worked flat. Not wanting a completely plain field, I chose to highlight the increase lines by making them lace. This wedge increasing eventually transitions into a pi-shawl increase to provide a blank slate (without increases) for the basket-weave trim.
You can easily size the shawl up and down by increasing or decreasing the number of repeats you work of the stockinette body. The rule of thumb to remember is that the trim will take about 50% of your yarn. As written, the body takes about 150 grams of yarn and then the trim takes 150 grams. If you want to knit the body for 200 grams then you will need at least 200 grams for the trim. And of course — since you are changing things on the fly, you might want to have an extra skein, just in case. 😉
