Special thanks to Alainn Yarns for supplying their Lost Wanderer yarn for the sample.

This design is a riff on the “Firework Dance” pattern created for the tenth anniversary of Alainn Yarns . This time, the eyelet triangles are neatly stacked on top of each other and are meant to suggest a stand of eighteen evergreen trees, with the tweedy yarn adding both visual and textural interest. Hunt around in your stash or LYS to see what effects you could create. Black, brown or tan neps lend a woodsy vibe; pure white neps evoke snow falling in the woods; bright, multi-coloured neps suggest trees decorated for the holidays. The geometric eyelet pattern would look great in other colours, too, and could bring to mind cone-shaped flowers, like celosia or lupins. Or, it could be dramatic in black, or…well, just plain pretty in any colour.

The lace border, which can be worked from the chart or from the written instructions, is worked straight, and the crescent shape is created with short rows in the plain, stocking stitch section of this small shawl. Decreases close the gaps in subsequent rows, so there’s no need to “wrap and turn.”

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

• cast on and bind off;
• knit and purl;
• yo increase;
• ssk decrease;
• k2tog decrease;
• p2tog decrease;
• cdd double decrease.