This shawl was knit with yarn sent to me as part of a challenge to design with handspun wool. The yarn was spun by UUeweKathryn from the fleece of Lacaune sheep, and, undyed, it is a beautiful soft white. The wool is toothy, but not particularly scratchy, and I very much enjoyed knitting with it. I have used a lace motif that I know is a favourite of the spinner, and incorporated quite a lot of garter stitch to complement the texture of the handspun yarn.

If you don’t have handspun, you can, of course, use commercial yarn. To achieve similar results to the sample, use a DK weight, non-superwash yarn. Estelle’s Eco Andean DK would be a fabulous choice, as it comes in beautiful, natural, “sheep-y” shades.

The shape of the shawl and the combination of stitch patterns would lend itself to yarns of different weights and fibres, and I suggest you experiment (i.e., swatch) to find your ideal match between yarn and gauge. You can also play with the widths of the garter and lace sections of the shawl; I suggest some combinations in the notes. To facilitate your making these design choices, I first present some general instructions, or recipe, then specific instructions for making the shawl as pictured.

The techniques you will need to know--or learn--to complete this project are:

• cast on and bind off;
• knit and purl;
• yo increase;
• kyok double increase;
• k2tog decrease;
• ssk decrease;
• cdd double decrease.