Loosly inspired by South African art, this shawl is dedicated to HomeAID for Africa.Not everyone wants a shawl that is earth tones, pastel, or something "quiet". There are lively, colorful people who would more appreciate a lively colorful shawl, even in times of trouble. Maybe it reminds them of life instead of grief. If you want to knit a shawl for such a person, this may be the pattern for you!
There are a lot of color changes in this. If you use wool yarn you can felt the two ends together instead of tying a knot. This is what I did: I knit to the end of the row where the color change was to occur then cut the yarn with about 3/4 inch hanging past the last stitch. Then I un-knit the last 3 stitches, putting them back on the other needle so I'd have long enough yarn to work with. I frayed the ends of the old and new color yarn, untwisting and pulling the strands apart then wet them and rubbed them together in my hands until I felt heat from friction. If you do it right, the join is as strong as the rest of the yarn! You overlap them about 3/4 inch. Then re-knit the ones you un-knit and continue on in the new color. Here is a helpful video guide to joining yarns: http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knitting-tips/. It's about halfway down.
If you'd rather use acrylic, you can try weaving all those ends in, but that can be a pain. Another option is to put tassels on the ends of the shawl and include the yarn ends in the tassels.To begin the shawl, cast on a multiple of 12, plus three. I started with 123 stitches (I like that number!) Knit a row, purl two rows, then knit two rows and you're ready to begin the triangle pattern.
Here is the chart for the triangle pattern: The sides show the colors I used for each row - 3 rows of red, 2 rows of orange, 3 rows of yellow; then 2 rows of orange and 3 rows of red. The white part is the actual repeating pattern.
On the first row of the triangle pattern, you need to knit two together, but since it's like knitting stockinette and there are bumps on the stitches it works much better to flip the stitches before knitting them together. Just slip the stitches as if to knit onto the other needle then pass them back, not like a ssk but only to flip them so they're facing the right way to knit them together. You can click on the chart to see it larger.Between each triangle pattern, do two rows of purl and then two rows of knit in black. When you do this, the "right side" flips, so your "right side" for the next section of triangles is the "wrong side" of the last series. This makes the shawl reversible.
Every other time you use the triangle pattern you start it at the middle, so the points of the triangles line up. When the pattern meets the edge on the last row - if it begins or ends with a "W", you only knit two together there instead of the three, because there isn't a yarn over past it.So here is the whole pattern.
First, knit a test swatch of two rows purl, two rows knit, one repetition of the triangle pattern, and two more rows knit and purl(in one color is ok) and wash and block it to get your gauge. This can give you a rough idea of how many rows of the triangle pattern you will need and how many repetitions of it you need for the length you want. On mine the triangles were 3.5 inches wide. I wanted mine around 22" wide and 42" long. This pattern is very versatile because you can make it into a lap quilt, or a scarf, or enlarge it for a larger person (because we can't all be thin like supermodels!)
I used Peace Fleece Worsted Weight yarn on #10 circulars. I cast on 123 stitches in black.Row 1: knit
Row 2: purl
Row 3: purl
Row 4: knit
Row 5: knit
Change to red yarn
Row 6: k1, (yo, k2 tog*, k10) 10 times, yo, k2 tog
*(slip 2 stitches, one at a time, to flip them then put them back on the original needle and knit them together)
***********Count very carefully on this row, make sure there are 11 stitches between each yarnover!*******************
Row 7: p1, (k1, p11) 10 times, k1, p
Row 8: k1, p1, (yo, k2 tog, k7, ssk*, yo, p1) 10 times, k1
*if you don't know how to do the slip, slip, knit stitch - ssk here's a helpful video of how to do it: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8913692202753051212
Change to orange yarn
Row 9: p1, k2, (p9, k3) 9 times, p9, k2, p1
Row 10: k1, p2, (yo, k2 tog, k5, ssk, yo, p3) 9 times, yo, k2 tog, k5, ssk, yo, p2, k
Change to yellow yarn
Row 11: p1, k3, (p7, k5) 9 times, p7, k3, p1
Row 12: k1, p3, (yo, k2 tog, k3, ssk, yo, p5) 9 times, yo, k2 tog, k3, ssk, yo, p3, k
Row 13: p1, k4, (p5, k7) 9 times, p5, k4, p1
Change to orange yarn
Row 14: k1, p4, (yo, k2 tog, k1, ssk, yo, p7) 9 times, yo, k2 tog, k1, ssk, yo, p4, k
Row 13: p1, k5, (p3, k9) 9 times, p3, k5, p1
Change to red yarn
Row 15: k1, p5, (yo, K3 tog*, yo, p9) 9 times, yo, k3 tog*, yo, p5, k1
*slip 3, one at a time to flip them, slip two back for a ssk, the slip the third stitch over
Row 16: p1, k6, (p1, k11) 9 times, p1, k6, p1
Row 17: k1, p6, (yo, p2 tog, p10) 9 times, yo, p2 tog, p6, k1
Change to black yarn
Row 18: purl
Row 19: purl
Row 20: knit
Row 21: knit
Change to red yarn
Row 22: k7, (yo, k2 tog*, k10) 9 times, yo, k2 tog, k6
*(slip 2 stitches, one at a time, to flip them then put them back on the original needle and knit them together)
***********The yarnover should be above and slightly to the right of the one underneath it, so the stitch directly above the yarnover below is used in the k2 together********************
Row 23: p7, (k1, p11) 9 times, k1, p7
Row 24: k5, (ssk, yo, p1, yo, k2 tog, k7) 9 times, ssk, yo, p1, yo, k2 tog, k5
Change to orange yarn
Row 25: p6, (k3, p9) 9 times, k3, p6
Row 26: k4, (ssk, yo, p3, yo, k2 tog, k5) 9 times, ssk, yo, p3, yo, k2 tog, k4
Change to yellow yarn
Row 27: p5, (k5, p7) 9 times, k5, p5
Row 28: k3, (ssk, yo, p5, yo, k2 tog, k3) 9 times, ssk, yo, p5, yo, k2 tog, k3
Row 29: p4, (k7, p5) 9 times, k7, p3
Change to orange yarn
Row 30: k2, (ssk, yo, p7, yo, k2 tog, k1) 9 times, ssk, yo, p7, yo, k2 tog, k2
Row 31: p3, (k9, p3) 9 times, k9, p3
Change to red yarn
Row 32: k1, k2 tog, yo, p9,(yo, K3 tog*, yo, p9) 8 times, yo, k2 tog, k1
*slip 3, one at a time to flip them, slip two back for a ssk, the slip the third stitch over
Row 33: p2, (k11, p1) 9 times, k11, p2
Row 34: k1, (yo, p2 tog, p10) 10 times, yo, p2 tog
Change to black yarn
Repeat from row 2
To end, purl 2 rows, knit 2 rows, purl one row, then bind off loosely.
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