For the past 18 months or so, I belonged to the Mary Maxim knit club. I'd receive an automatic shipment of a different yarn each month with the suggested pattern to go with it. (Though I seldom used the suggested pattern. I gotta be me.) It was always a delightful surprise to get the package in the mail. Reasonable value for the most part too and some screaming deals. It definitely got me out of a samey-same yarn rut by encouraging me to work with different textures and colourways than my comfort zone.
I recently quit the club because I want to focus more on supporting indie dyers and spinners working with natural fibers. Stay tuned for those adventures. But for now, behold my last club shipment.
Patons Glam Stripes in Wine. Very much in my usual spectrum of colours and yarn weight (3, light). The pattern that came with it was a full-size triangular shawl, very old school granny. Pretty, but not my thing. So the hunt was on. I had thought the Paton's Asymmetrical Shawl might be perfect: a mindless knit in a shape I'd for sure wear. Plus, it's designed for Glam Stripes, so it should be easy-peasy. Unfortunately, when I started to knit...
It totally looks like a dish cloth, right? Like maybe the fancy dish cloth of a lounge singer in Vegas, but a dish cloth nonetheless. Plus, the striping kind of gets loss and the silver bits look kind of random. So I frogged it.
Then I thought about a pattern for a couple of shawls I just love wearing, the Edge of the Wedge Shawl, also by Patons. The teal one was made from Patons Lace Sequin, and the grey mix from yarn I bought on clearance at Michaels. The fact that they both have sequins is certainly a clue to my natural magpie tendencies.
I love both of these shawls and wear them fairly often. Well, as often as one can wear sequins without actually turning in to Katherine Chancellor. (Not that there's anything wrong with aspiring to that level of awesome, mind you.)
So, I decided to use that pattern as my starting point. I modified it a bit to keep it more interesting than doing the exact same thing again. I eliminated the bobbles and added in some stockinette striping to try to highlight the striping in the yarn.
It didn't take me too many rows to determine it was working for me.
The stockinette gives the yard a more refined look than all garter. The striping, the shimmer, and the cable detailing provided enough visual interest as well. I don't love the feel of the yarn––as you might guess, it's a little rough--but I think it knit up nicely.
Here it is on my luxurious laundry room floor being blocked.
And here it is, on the wearer. Don't judge my lack of selfie-taking prowess. I'm not a millennial. The skill did not come built in.
