A gansey-inspired mystery shawl with brioche and optional garter stitches.
Every year as I begin my design for the mystery shawl knit-along I feel a little intimidated. I’m trying to balance many different elements so it works as a fun knit, each clue makes sense as cohesive whole, and most importantly, the finished shawl is a knit you will wear and love for years to come.
Let’s be honest.
Designing a Mystery Knit-Along is slightly intimidating every single year.
So for the 2026 Mystery Knit-Along, I started somewhere unexpected.
With an old swatch.
Here’s where it got interesting. The swatch was made for a magazine project that never got used. It combined a little bit of basic brioche and allowed it to flow into a textured gansey stitch. The yarn the swatch was knit with was a bouncy, rounded wool that made every stitch look plump and full. It sat in a swatch box for several years until I rediscovered it.
It sat in a swatch box for years.
Then on my desk.
Then it wouldn’t leave me alone.
I found myself admiring the stitches and the textural quality of the swatch. Eventually I realised that I had to stop admiring the swatch and actually do something with it. So I built a shawl around this magnetic swatch.
I began with the shape, deciding on the style of shawl I love to wear, which is wide and not too deep. In my day-today life most of my shawls act as glorified scarves, and this shawl is long enough to comfortably wrap around as a scarf if you’d like that too.
From here we sourced a selection of yarns that we feel will work beautifully to show off the brioche and gansey stitches.
Scroll down to see full details of all the yarns to pick your favourite.
2026 MKAL Timing
For those looking to join our MKAL our schedule is as follows:
- Yarn Kits on Sale: 14th January, 2026, 8pm Irish time (3pm EST)
- Clue 1: 10th February, 2026
- Clue 2: 17th February, 2026
- Clue 3: 24th February, 2026
- Final Prize: 24th March, 2026
Yarn Options
Albertine
This plump blend of merino and silk from De Rerum Natura gives a lovely crisp stitch definition that will make your stitch pop. Take care to block your swatch with this yarn as it is worsted spun and can grow a lot post-blocking so you need to check your gauge both before and after..
4ply/ Fingering
Worsted-spun, 90% organic merinos d’Arles with 10% mulberry silk.
218 yds / 200m per 50g
Moon
This handyed yarn from LITLG blends 80% merino with 20% silk. The silk in this blend gives your stitches a soft shine and the subtle colour variations from the hand dye create a rich depth of colour.
4ply/ Fingering
80% Super wash Merino, 20% Silk
400yds/ 365m per 100g
Darnie
This lovely soft woollen spun lambswool from Studio Donegal will give you a soft, woolly finished shawl. While the stitches will be softer the forgiving bounce means uneven stitches are smoothed out.
4ply/ Fingering
100% Lambswool
450 yds/ 410m per 100g
Shawl Details
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Width: 81” / 205.5 cm
Depth At Centre: 21” / 53.5 cm
YARN
Approximate Yardage: 1215 yds / 1109 m of 4ply/fingering yarn
NEEDLES & NOTIONS
US size 4 / 3.5 mm circular needles, 32” / 80 cm long or longer for Brioche Stitch
US size 5 / 3.75 mm circular needles, 32” / 80 cm long or longer for Gansey Stitches & Garter Stitch
Always use a needle size that gives you the gauge listed, as every knitter’s gauge is unique.
Tapestry needle, stitch markers.
GAUGE
20 sts and 44 rows = 4″ / 10 cm in Brioche Stitch blocked with smaller needle blocked
21 sts and 38 rows = 4” / 10 cm in Gansey Stitch & Garter Stitch blocked with larger needle blocked
HOW TO JOIN THE 2025 MYSTERY KNIT-ALONG (MKAL)
If you would like to join us for a month of shawl knitting all you have to do is:
Click on THIS LINK at 8pm Irish Time on Wednesday January 14th and you can nab the shawl pattern. This link will not be live until this time.
Kits can be purchased HERE after 8pm on Wednesday January 14th.
Once you purchase, you will receive an email with all the information for this year’s mystery knit-along.
Will you be joining us this year?
Need more info?
Why not check out our yarns and MKAL info right here: