A long, pointed shawl with attitude, Aurora is perfect for adding a pop of colour to any outfit. Equally at home over jeans or dresses, the shape is scarf-like and wearable, while still having enough fabric to wrap up and stay warm in. Inspired by beautiful handpainted yarn from Happy-Go-Knitty, Aurora is a deceptively simple design that uses brioche to produce stitch patterns that showcase colours beautifully. The fabric from the brioche is light while retaining a squishy texture from the stitches themselves that keeps it warm.

Aurora comes in both a two-colour version and a three-colour version. The pattern is also accompanied by a booklet with photo tutorials explaining all the techniques required for the pattern – designed especially to help support knitters who have never ventured into the world of brioche knitting before. Knit sideways from point to point, Aurora is a great way to learn brioche techniques and get comfortable with them. After a few rows of each stitch pattern, it is even a relaxing knit with easily memorised stitch patterns. The segments of the pattern each stand alone and the shawl grows from a single point, so both the length and width of the shawl are easily adjusted.

First time trying brioche?
All of Aurora’s test knitters had never brioched before trying this pattern. Aurora is suitable for intermediate knitters and is a great way to add brioche techniques into your knitting repertoire. The pattern comes with a full brioche technique booklet that contains photos to help on your brioche knitting journey. The hardest parts of the shawl are the increase and decrease sections at the beginning and end as these require brioche increase and decrease stitches. If these prove too challenging, the pattern also comes with a garter stripe alternative for the start and end of the shawl to allow for a more less challenging introduction to brioche.

Gauge is not crucial for this project. This pattern is easily adjustable for desired size and available yarn. The pattern also contains notes on how to weigh yarn while working to ensure there is enough left to complete the shawl. If you want to swatch for this project, I have a blogpost on how to do this (https://cetusknits.com/2018/05/16/getting-gauge-for-aurora/). The blogpost also shows the difference between the elongated point option and the straight edge option at the beginning of the shawl to help you decide which one you prefer.

Needles & notions
3.5mm circular needles long enough to hold up to approx. 100 st, minimum 40cm length recommended. Note, needles must be circular for two colour brioche to allow the same side to be worked twice before turning.
Stitch holder / cable needle / locking stitch marker to be used to hold a stitch off the needle.
Removable stitch marker.
Waste yarn and crochet hook for provisional cast on.
Optional, but recommended: yarn scales or other method to weigh yarn (kitchen scales work well) and blocking wires.

Why are there two versions of this pattern?
This pattern was originally designed in Sikkim by Happy-Go-Knitty – it was actually inspired by her handpainted colourways. This yarn comes in 120g skeins and, wanting to maximise the use of the beautiful yarn, I designed to use as much of it as possible. If the yarn you want to use comes in mini-skeins, it would be easy to ‘top up’ and make a 120g colour set. If that’s not possible, that’s why there’s a three-colour version! It can be knitted with 3x100g skeins to enable easy yarn substitutions. When you buy the pattern, you receive both versions as well as the brioche technique booklet, meaning you’ll have everything you need to make your own Aurora shawl.

Fingering Weight / 4-ply
2 colour version
480m of each colour
Sample shown in Happy-Go-Knitty Sikkim 4ply 480m / 120g in Driftwood and Love On Fire
3 colour version
366m of each colour
Sample shown in Happy-Go-Knitty Mardi 4ply 366m / 100g in Lagoon, Dragonfly and Midwinter Night

Included in your Ravelry pattern purchase
2 colour pattern
3 colour pattern
Aurora brioche technique booklet

Published in yarnpeople Issue 2 | Brioche +. Yarnpeople version is formatted for low-vision.