Grianchloch Shawl – Behind the Design

It’s always exciting to come to the end of a mystery knit-along because I can finally reveal the completed shawl to you! I’d love to tell you all the nitty-gritty details about the shawl as well as explaining my process of putting a mystery design together. Whether the pattern is a mystery or not, what is always most important is that you will love and wear your finished knit.

Pattern Design for Mystery Knit-alongs.

Creating a design for a mystery knit-along has many challenges. The design needs to be both a cohesive whole and also have several distinct sections that can be released as ‘clues’. I firmly believe that the final design should never suffer due to the need to create the clues, so my aim is always to have something a little different in each clue that is a natural progression from the previous section.

Section 1 | Shawl Shape & Short Row Wedges

The Grianchloch Shawl is a biased shawl that starts with just a few stitches at the beginning. It then increases every row on one end and decreases every other row at the other end. This creates a shape that slowly grows wider and also ’tilts’ to the side, creating a parallelogram shape.

This shawl shape creates a narrow, long shawl that is really easy to wear wrapped around your neck like a scarf. It can, however, be a little ‘too’ narrow, so our short row wedges aim to correct this. These short rows are worked on the end with all of the increases. This means that for those rows you’re getting double increases as there are now decreases worked! This is also an easy place to modify if you want to make your shawl wider, just make the wedges bigger or add extra.

Section 2 | The Wave Pattern

This is one of my favourite stitch pattern, it uses elongated stitches in a pattern that gets wider and then narrower to create a subtle wave effect. This is enhanced by using the laceweight mohair to work the waves, creating a translucent, ethereal quality to the fabric. In fact, this is one of the comments that echoed from all the knitters when they have finished:

The shawl feels as light as air!”

I like my shawls to be very modifiable so it’s very easy to have more or less stitches on each side of the pattern repeat if you’ve changed the width of the shawl. I give directions in the tips section to help you make any changes you might want to make. Plus, if you want extra support as you knit, you can also add the video workshop as well as the pattern!

Section 3 | The Butterfly Pattern

We now come to the final section of the shawl, the Butterfly stitch. This is worked entirely in the laceweight yarn, creating a lightweight, airy quality to the edge. I’ve used two different colours and alternated the sections between them, but it works equally well in a single colour yarn.

I’ve even seen one knitter (CatsNBru) during the MKAL add beads above each of the Butterflies and it’s fantastic! I love to see how my design is modified as you work with it. It’s truly special and takes my design and really makes it yours.

If you want to see a closeup of the Grianchloch shawl, you can see it in our most recent YouTube Live right here:

The Grianchloch Shawl Pattern Details

For those of you just finding this pattern now, here are the shawl pattern details, yarn quantities and notions:

SIZES

One Size

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS

Width: 89” / 226 cm

Depth:  19.5” / 49.5 cm

YARN

MC: Fyberspates ‘Vivacious 4ply’ ‘ (100% Superwash Merino Wool; 399 yds / 365 m per 3.6 oz / 100 g); colour: Pebble Beach (614); 1 skein

Manos Del Uruguay ‘Cabrito’ (80% Kid Mohair, 20% Polyamide; 230 yds / 210 m per 0.88 oz / 25 g); colours:

CC1: Marble (R9775); 1 skein

CC2: Primrose (R6506); 1 skein

Approx. Yardage: MC: 399 yds / 365 m, C1: 175 yds / 160 m, C2: 157 yds / 143 m

NEEDLES & NOTIONS

US size 6 / 4 mm circular needle, 32” / 80 cm long

Always use a needle size that gives you the gauge listed, as every knitter’s gauge is unique.

Removable stitch markers, tapestry needle.

GAUGE

19 sts and 36 rows = 4″ / 10 cm in Garter Stitch & Stitch Pattern blocked

Please note that if you purchase the pattern only, there is a discount code within the pattern should you want to add on the full step-by-step video workshop series if you decide you’d like it as you work through your shawl.

How to buy The Grianchloch pattern, kits or workshop?

Pattern (From here you can add on yarn kits/ workshops too!)

Workshop (Note: Workshop includes a copy of the pattern.)

Yarn Kit (Our favourite colour and yarn combinations for the Grianchloch Shawl)

How to join our next knit-along

Our next KAL is a garment knit-along with a twist. All the details will be released on our KAL page here.

However, if you want to jump into a community project right now, our Knitting Clubs always have a digital option and are active throughout the year.

You can also stay up to date with everything from Stolen Stitches in our weekly newsletter here.

The Grianchloch Shawl FAQ

Do I have to use a mohair yarn?

No you don’t. The main yarn used in this shawl is a fingering weight yarn with a contrasting lace weight yarn. My lace weight was a brushed mohair blend, which is very forgiving of knitting loosely as the mohair ‘fills in the gaps’.

What you need to know is that the stitches in the lace weight are going to be much more open than the fingering weight yarn. This will help to create two different textures for each section. Aggressive blocking will help to even out any uneven stitches you may have from knitting the contrast yarn loosely.

In my sample, I used 2 skeins of Cabrito, which have 25g in each. However, the way the shawl is written, if you have a single 50g skein of contrast colour, you can work that for all contrast yarn sections. This should work well in the pattern, especially if it has some colour variations.

Can I modify the shawl pattern sections?

If you want to make the shawl wider, you can work more short row sections, or perhaps make the short row sections that are there wider. If you’d like to learn more about this, you catch up with my in-depth clue release posts here. I go into detail on the wave pattern here and the butterfly pattern here.

What cast on should I start the Grianchloch Shawl with?

I opted to start with the Twisted German Cast-On (also known as the Old Norwegian Cast-On) as it gives a nice, attractive but stretchy edge. If you have knit a shawl before, then you know that lots of stretch is what it’s all about! However, as you are starting with just a few stitches so the cast-on can be changed without having too much impact.

How do I block the Grianchloch Shawl?

With shawls, blocking is very important! You will want to block your shawl aggressively, stretching out the fabric so that it becomes open and drapey.

I like to use a combination of blocking wires and pins or knit blockers to pin it out when it is wet. You can find more on this with your accompanying MKAL workshops. 

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