I alluded to this pattern test a few weeks ago when I talked about the Garter Tab Cast-On, and I’m excited to finally be able to show you how this shawl looks! The shawl is a great size for wrapping up in, and the pattern is so satisfying to work up.

• 1 and 2/3 skein of Caron Simply Soft – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above: Soft Pink)
• 2/5 skein of Lion Brand Heartland – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above: Soft Pink)
• Size 9 (5.50mm) knitting needles (I used Knitter’s Pride 102cm circulars)

Pattern by Mollie at White Owl Crochet Co.

Part of pattern testing is helping to document the yardage used so that the designer can confirm what to put in their pattern. When I was testing this shawl, I forgot to bring all of the yarn I had chosen with me, so I had to do a bit of finagling to make the yardage work. I ended up with multiple colours in my border

While the shawl still looks beautiful, I didn’t love the multiple colours, so after I documented my yardage for the full version, I actually frogged back to the pink and made some modifications. In my final version there is one less repeat, and I actually finished on the repeat of row 15 instead of 16. For row 16, I switched to the contrasting colour and counted it as one of my border rows. My border was also slightly thinner, since I only did 15 rows. I thought that having only two colours made my shawl look more cohesive and cleaner.

At first I thought that this shawl needed a more dramatic border, but in hindsight, I think that the simplicity of the garter stitch contrasts the lace perfectly. I will note that even by the end, I never learned the lace repeats by heart and had to keep checking the pattern, so I wouldn’t recommend working on this shawl during a particularly exciting Netflix show.

In general, I have a love-hate relationship with triangular shawls, because I love the way they look, but I hate how long it takes to do each row when you get toward the end of the pattern. After all, when there are over 300 stitches in a single row, it can take a while. I’m hoping to try some rectangular or parallelogram shaped shawls in the future, so maybe I’ll be able to get my shawl fix without dreading those long rows at the end.

Until next time, happy crafting!