When I look at this shawl, I imagine the legendary mermaid, Lorelei, gazing out across the surface of her pool; when the water is still, she can see her reflection, but with the lightest stirring of wind, the water ripples and begins to mirror a thousand separate facets of sunlight. The light’s patterns continue change with the varied movement of the water, dancing across its dappled surface.

Lorelei’s Looking Glass mimics this rippling reflection with garter stripes and slip-stitch motifs in a vortex-shaped shawl with a gentle curve that might remind you of a mermaid’s tail — but which also serves the very practical purpose of keeping the shawl snug around your shoulders. It is knit with two skeins of fingering-weight yarn in highly contrasting colors, with an integrated I-cord edge that hides the contrasting color being carried up the sides.

Difficulty Level: Advanced Beginner

Skills/Techniques Used: Integrated I-cord edging, I-cord bind off, slipped-stitch colorwork (Instructions provided)

Yarn: Louisiana Yarn Guys Tremé Sock (80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon; 400 yds/366 m per 100g skein), one skein Devious Mermaid and one skein natural, or two skeins of fingering weight or sock yarn in highly-contrasting colors.

This pattern is available as part of a kit from Louisiana Yarn Guys.

Other suitable yarns for this project include: Louisiana Yarn Guys Provenance; Knit Picks Hawthorne, Stroll, or Gloss; Malabrigo Sock; Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet 100, and many other sock yarns.

Needles: #6 US (4.0 mm) for knitting flat or needles to obtain gauge

Notions: 2 stitch markers, tapestry needle, scissors

Gauge: 18 stitches and 35 rows per 4”/10 cm in garter stitch, after blocking

Finished Measurements:

Length: 21 ½” (55 cm) at longest point

Wingspan: 49” (124 cm) at widest point

Top edge: 58” (147 cm) along top curved edge