Flyde Shawl
by Wendy Avery
I love the beautiful tones of multicolored hand dyed yarn but don't always know how to put them to best use. It occurred to me that I could use one multicolored yarn and one more tonal yarn in combination. This easy to knit crescent shaped shawl uses basic knit and purl stitches but also optional dropped yarn over stitches to create a lacey effect. The pattern helps to avoid pooling of colors and highlights the multicolored merino. The yarn creates a floaty fabric; "flyde" is Danish for "float."
Materials:
Large circular knitting needle size 2 or 3; sample was knitted with size 2.
Yarn: Handmaiden's Halo Bundle has a skein of Angel Hair (kid mohair and silk) and a skein of Merino Slim (merino) which have been dyed together. I used Angel Hair and Merino Slim from two different Halo Bundles. The orange Angel Hair is more tonal; the Merino Slim is more multicolored featuring orange, purple, and yellow. You could use a single bundle as well, or experiment with a fingering weight single and a silk mohair yarn, or any other 2 yarns. Experiment!
Directions: gauge is not important. I got about 5 stitches per inch, unblocked.
Note: rows 2 and 3 are always done with multicolored yarn; rows 3 and 4 with tonal yarn.
Cast on 10 stitches with multicolored yarn.
Row 1. Knit
Row 2. K1, yo, k1, yo, knit to 2 stitches before end, yo, k1, yo, k1.
Row 3. Knit. Switch yarn.
Row 4. Same as Row 2.
Row 5. Purl
Repeat rows 2 through 5.
After a while, I got bored and decided to add some yarn overs which I did in row 5 with the orange tonal yarn. If you do this, be sure to drop them in the subsequent row 2. Do them between the beginning and ending "K1, yo, k1, yo" sequence. I did some with 2 yarn overs then some with 3 yarn overs. In the photo below, the first 3 orange stockinette rows are the basic pattern as written, the 4th row has 2 yarn overs, and the 5th and 6th rows have 3 yarn overs.
Continue until the yarn runs out, then bind off loosely.
Enjoy!
