Pattern Release: Wynne

You're probably getting sick of seeing this shawl by now, as you've seen it in various stages of completion twice over, but at least this time around I'm showing it to tell you that the pattern is finally available for purchase!

The idea for this shawl came to me quite a while ago, sometime last year. I originally wanted to do it in handspun, and my first two spinning projects of this year were intended to become the first sample, but the original combination turned out to not have enough contrast for my liking, so it was the end of February before I had two skeins that I was satisfied with, and it was late March before I found time to actually cast on. It's amazing how much time can pass when you're busy with life!

Although I had a picture in my head of how I wanted to shawl to look, I did do a certain amount of designing on the needles for this one. I had to do some swatching to get the short-row sections to look right and some knitting and ripping to get the spacing figured out. After the handspun version was done, I almost immediately cast on a second sample, both to check my numbers and to have a commercial sample with more reliable yarn amounts for the final pattern. I knew I had a winner on my hands when I didn't get bored knitting it the second time around. And I certainly hope you feel the same way!

The handspun version

Wynne is a crescent-shaped shawl that is worked from the top down. The shape is achieved by increasing six stitches every two rows (four stitches on right-side rows and two stitches on wrong-side rows). This increase rate gives you a shawl that very quickly gets very wide but overall isn't terribly deep, and I think that makes for a very wearable shawl that can double as a scarf. The increases I've used for this shawl are the m1 increases that Elizabeth Zimmermann was so fond of -- a simple backwards loop on the needle. They blend in very nicely with the garter stitch and are very easy to do.

The commercial yarn version, worked in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering

Those wave-like areas are formed with wrap-and-turn short rows, which I think you'll find are very easy in garter stitch. A benefit of garter is that, if you want, you can often keep the wraps in place when you return to them, as they do blend in quite well (though I will add that I did pick mine up because I felt it made the fabric neater, but it's something you can try in your swatch and decide on your own).

The great thing about this pattern is that it's very easy to adjust. You can easily make it larger or smaller by adding or removing rows in the solid blocks of color without having to adjust any of the short-row segments (though, depending on where and how you adjust, the short rows will end up either more off to one side of the shawl or more toward the center).

While the inspiration for the actual design just popped into my head, the name has a very specific influence. The shape of this type of shawl always made me think a bit of gentle waves, especially the way the ends kind of curl up and hang just so, and that shape is echoed in the short-row sections. The shape and the flow of the design gave me a very calm, happy feeling, and that feeling reminded me of a friend from college. Wynne was a year or two older and was in my sorority, and I got to know her during my first couple of years there. She was one of the most serene people I've ever met, always calm and with a smile on her face. Moreover, I always loved her name (pronounced "win-NAY"), so this seemed the perfect opportunity to use it for a design.

As to the specs, you'll need two skeins of fingering weight yarn in contrasting colors (or not, depending on your preference), approximately 425 yds./388 m in length. I actually used less than 400 yds. of both colors in my samples, but I know not everyone is too diligent about swatching for shawls (guilty!) and I want to make sure you won't run out. You'll also need a circular that's at least 40 in./100 cm long, as you'll end up with close to 500 stitches on the needle by the end. The pattern is fully written out and has been professionally tech edited.

I'm so thrilled to finally be sharing this pattern with you today, and I hope that you love it as much as I do!