One of the many good things about working in a yarn shop is seeing all the things you make.
Last year I saw several Souvenir Shawls - a one skein 4ply shawl with a pretty lace pattern.
Designed by Maria Samuelsson the pattern is available to buy on Ravelry.
Souvenir is designed for those single skeins you pick up on your travels. Whether it's a highly variegated hand-dyed, semi-solid or solid colour.
The bulk of the shawl is in garter stitch (knit every row) so you'll get to see all the little pops of colour of a highly variegated hand dyed yarn. And the wavy lace is bold enough not to disappear amongst the colours.
If you've got a semi-solid hand dye, like I've used, the garter stitch ridges let the subtle colours shine.
I used one skein of our Don't Talk Back 4ply, hand dyed by My Mama Knits, in Bloody Henry Starfish. The pattern calls for 365-400m (100g) of a 4ply yarn. So I had plenty of yarn. In fact I only used 75g!
Souvenir is a triangular shawl but it's a bit different from the other triangles we have in the shop.
It starts at the top with a few stitches and then you are increasing quite rapidly.
The edge increases are done right on the edge - giving them an 'unfinished' look. and the yarn overs around the 1 stitch 'spine' form an arrow pattern.
The increases are very straightforward to work and it's clear what you should be doing on each row. With the garter stitch body, it makes it a mindless-ish knit.
You can make it even easier on yourself by adding stitch markers either side of that centre stitch to protect it. You don't want your arrows wandering off. The pattern tells you where to put them. Use ones that go onto the knitting needle and sit between your stitches. The markers will move along with your stitches and when you get to one you'll just move it from one needle to the other.
One tip I will give you is to watch out for the yarn overs made beside the stitch markers. Sometimes a marker can slip under the yarn over loop. So just pay attention on those rows.
Now, because of the rapid increasing you do end up with a lot of stitches on your needle.
I started with a 60cm long circular needle and then used a 100cm circular needle. Starting with a shorter length is less cumbersome. I don't like wrangling the long cable when there isn't a lot of stitches. You can start this shawl on a straight needle but you'll eventually run out of space.
Once the garter stitch body is completed you then work the wavy lace edge.
The edging is CHARTED. I found them a little over complicated given it's a fairly simple lace pattern. But you can write you're own notations on them as they are BIG charts.
You are also working with two charts. One for the arrows at the centre spine and one for the wavy lace.
This sounds complicated but it's not. It just takes a wee bit of planning.
What follows is some advice that is specific to the Souvenir pattern, whilst also respecting the designer's copyright. You might find it confusing. If you have the pattern in front of you it will make more sense. Trust me! 😊
First! Count you have the correct number of stitches at least two rows before starting the lace edge. It's easy to miss an increase at the edges and if you're only short one or two stitches you can add them in more easily now.
I did not check and found I was two stitches short on the lace edge. So I fudged the first row of lace by not doing 2 decreases. I was definitely not ripping it back to find the missing increase.😆
There is a set up row where you can place stitch markers. These stitch markers will set up the Chart B pattern repeats and Chart A (which is just the same markers you placed earlier to mark the centre stitch).
Chart B is worked over 17 stitches. So place a stitch marker, on your needle, every 17 stitches. You want these stitch markers to be different from the centre stitch markers you placed earlier so you can easily see when you need to work a different chart. Another tip is to check you still have 17 stitches after you've worked a 'lace row' repeat. Just in case you forget a yarn over.
The benefit of placing stitch markers after every Chart B repeat is that you know within those 17 stitches if you've gone wrong. Not when you get to the end of the row and realise you've got too many or too few stitches.
You'll work the charts by reading right to left on the right side rows and left to right on the wrong side rows. Which to be honest doesn't really matter in this pattern as the lace is straightforward but it's a good habit to have.
Now. Three things to note:
- The set up row is row one of Chart B and Chart A. After you work the set up row you do row 2 etc. The instructions make it look like you do row 1 again. But you do not!
- Chart A and B are worked over a different number of rows. I found it very helpful to write out the row numbers for the edging, 1 to 20, down a piece of paper. And then write beside each number which row of Chart B I was doing and which row of Chart A I was doing. Then I could just tick it off. Label the columns of numbers and/or use different coloured pens!
- On the bottom edge I kept the lace pattern around the centre spine the same as I did on the body. Chart A seems to suggest you do something different (as do the designer's photos on the Ravelry pattern page) but I didn't work it out so I kept it the same.
Reading all that without the pattern in front of you will probably put you off making your own Souvenir Shawl so I'll counter it with three straightforward things:
- The bulk of this shawl is just garter stitch.
- Chart A around the centre stitch is the same for the edging and the main body. So by the time you get to the edging you've already done 9 repeats of it. It isn't anything new.
- There's only one row of Chart B where you're working a lacey row. That is, making 'paired' yarn overs and decreases. So that's only one row where you have to make sure you increase (by making a yarn over for a hole) and decrease (to keep the stitch count the same) correctly. And honestly, you'll be repeating this combination of stitches a lot and it will become easier and more intuitive. Also your stitch markers will help enormously. And remember, if you forget a yarn over on the right side row and find you have less than 17 stitches on the next wrong side row, you can just pick up a loop between the stitches on your needle and work it as if you did the yarn over correctly in the first place.
Like most lace projects, the shawl does benefit from having a wash and a little bit of a stretch.
Straight off the needlesI followed my usual procedure and soaked my Souvenir in some Eucalan. I then drained and squished out the excess water in a towel.
I pieced together my 'blocking' mats (kids play mats, you can find similar in B&Q and supermarkets) into a long strip.
I then used blocking pins to pin the top edge straight and pin out each individual point made be the wavy lace edge.
I used Knit Blockers for the top edge and T-Pins for the points.
(Please excuse the dark photo. It's February in Scotland.)
I then left it to dry COMPLETELY.
My finished measurement is 140cm along the top edge and 35cm deep.
To recap
You can buy a copy of Souvenir Shawl on Ravelry or as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop.
You can buy My Mama Knits Don't Talk Back 4ply here. I used 1 skein of Bloody Henry Starfish. You can use any 4ply.
I used a 4mm circular needle. I started with a 60cm and moved to 100cm as the number of stitches increased.
