Lumo

I usually knit while watching TV. So it's important to always have something mindless on the needles that doesn't take too much concentration. On the other hand, I'm bored easily. I need variation or a challenge. This time, I managed to design a shawl with the perfect balance of both, lots of mindless repetition yet enough variation to keep me interested. Don't worry about the challenge: I conquered those during the design process so that you don't have to.

What: Lumo / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Kettle Yarn Co. Baskerville 2.0, 100 g

I got a pleasent email in the spring from the British Kettle Yarn Co. They asked me if I'd be interested in designing a shawl for their yarn. I got a shipment of this gorgeous Baskerville 2.0 yarn which is a blend of Gotland and Blue Faced Leicester, both long fibres. The yarn has a stunning, natural lustre and shine to it and it's non-superwash which I like a lot.

Since the yarn itself was so beautiful, I wanted to design something rather simple for it. Also, I've yet to design a rectangular shawl and this was the time. I got two colors of the yarn (Dawn and Madder) and I decided right away that I'd use the main color for garter stitch and the contrast color for lace.

I know myself and I knew that I'd loose my mind working garter stitch straight for the entire length of the shawl. So I started sketching a shawl that would have these sections worked in different directions.

I needed the patience of a saint with my sample. I think I worked every single section at least twice to make it work. You see, when working in different directions, there are different row gauges to consider and constantly making sure the shawl is the same width everywhere. Garter stitch added to the challenge as it has a very different row gauge compared to stockinette stitch. With stockinette stitch, you can usually use the 2 sts per 3 rows to pick up stitches but that goes haywire with garter stitch. In the end, I got the knitting mathematics to settle down and I promise you won't have to worry about any of this. You get to just knit and relax.

Lumo is a rectangular shawl worked in two colors. The main color is always worked in garter stitch and the contrast color in lace. The fun part is that each section of the shawl is worked in a different direction so you sure won't get bored even though this is a fairly easy and simple design. The shawl has i-cord edges that are worked at the same time as the rest of the shawl so there are only yarn ends to weave in once you're finished with the shawl body. You can cut the yarns when changing sections but it's easy to carry them along inside the i-cord. That way you will only have few yarns ends to weave in at the end.

You can find the shawl on Ravelry and there's a 20% discount code KETTLE good through December 9th.