Winter Berry shawl

Some knitting today! When were in Callander at Easter, I bought some of this yarn in my number one favourite mustardy yellow colour in Stitchcraft Callander. It’s the Fibre Company Cumbria fingering, which is a blend of masham wool, merino and mohair, which I later discovered is actually the sample yarn for this pattern. The colour is called Buttermere. I don’t knit much these days, but I really fancied buying a souvenir, and I had looked up an interesting-but-easy-enough-for-knitting-in-meetings pattern especially.

I settled on this, Winter Berry, by Sister Mountain, and it meets the brief perfectly. The pattern is a 36 row 4 stitch repeat, it’s knit sideways, so stripes are vertical, you increase, then knit straight for a bit, then decrease more slowly than you increase, so you end up with a sort of asymetric crescent shape. I really like this way of doing it, rather than knitting from the inside out, because it gives you much more control to check the size as you go along.

That being said, I made the bigger size, and it’s a little on the small size. You basically have to wear it like I am in the pictures, it’s too short to wrap it round your neck as a scarf, and not big enough to wap it round yourself, blanket style (which would actually be my preferred way or wearing shawls since I am now 90% WFH and stingy with the heating). This is a bit annoying, I stuck with the recommended stitch count as it said two hanks in the pattern and I obviously didn’t want to run out, but I actually ended up with almost half a one left over, so could easily have increased more. But, I’ll know for next time and it’s so easy to adjust!

I did really enjoy this stitch for knitting in meetings, and I am now thinking about using it for a nice rectangular shawl, with identical diagonal increases and decreases at either end. Something to mull over!

Facts below in case you’ve skipped all the chat!

Pattern: Winter Berry by Sister Mountain

Yarn: Fibre Company Cumbria Fingering

Size: L