It has been a few years since I’ve published with the Twist Collective and I’m honoured to be part of it again with their winter 2015 issue. My pattern for this issue is Vinca, a top down shawl that uses a textured stitch pattern with a gradient yarn.

In this pattern I was introduced to a new to me yarn, Lilt Sock, by Black Trillium Fibres. It was great timing for me as I’m currently going through a gradient yarn obsession :-) The gradient was in the color periwinkle which blends very smoothly from one colour to the next, with very subtle color shifts from one mini-skein to the next.

When working with gradient yarns I like stitch patterns that bias the fabric, using a series of increases and decreases to gently undulate the knitting so that the transition from one color to the next isn’t a straight line.
This shawl starts at the back of the neck with a delicate cream yarn in garter stitch and then flows into the leaf stitch pattern. This stitch pattern increases outwards at each side of the work and when you get to the bottom edge the pattern is exploded into a larger version before ending with garter stitch.

To create this shawl without a gradient kit you could put together your own series of colors that transitioned well from one to the other. If the colors weren’t close enough together you could also try blending the join by alternating the colors for a few rows of the work when you started a new color to smooth the transition. This is what I did with the Dragon Flames cardigan. When I got to the final quarter of each skein I began alternating rows with the next color.