Granite Lake Shawl Adds Motion to Garter
The next series of Showy Garter designs demonstrate how the raised lines can be formatted to create pattern on the knit fabric. I call it Garter in Motion and (as usual) I am pretty excited about it.
There are dozens of lakes in the Tahoe area. All Showy Garter projects are named after these lakes or lake front areas of Lake Tahoe itself.
The angular lines of this pattern seemed perfect for Granite Lake, a small lake near Emerald Bay. The Showy Lines all start at the same time, stop one–by-one then start up again in a mirror image that creates a diagonal shard.
2 Triangles, 2 Color Blocking Patterns, 2 Ways to Wear
The shawl is made from 2 long triangles joined part-way on their short sides. This allows the shawl to drape over your shoulder so you look great coming and going.
The triangles are different sizes and you can wear it with either the narrow or wide stripes in the front for different looks. You can see how Nikki is wearing it both ways above and below is the blue and yellow sample with the narrow stripes in the front.
Colors
The shawl uses four colors. Two main colors, a light neutral and a second neural to act at the contrasting color. Lighter and brighter color show the pattern of the Showy Garter lines which is kind of the point of the shawl so plan accordingly.
- Sample 1: Blue and yellow main colors, off white neutral and brown contrasting.
- Sample 2: Pink and orange main colors, blush neutral and light gray contrasting.
Level of Difficulty
I struggled with this pattern because I couldn’t decide on the balance of giving you enough detail without making it look harder than it is. I spent an inordinate amount of time writing a pattern I actually hope you don’t use very much.
A separate mini-pattern swatch has been included in order help you learn and recognize the pattern in the knitting itself vs. on paper. I also highly recommend (beg of you) to download the free Introduction to Showy Garter e-Book on Ravelry because it has pages of tutorials you can reference when you’re getting started.
Fun photoshoot.
The hardest part of this pattern will be paying attention. Any difficulty is likely to be because you knit the garter so fast you forget to stop or start a line or skip the shaping decrease every 3rd row. The two samples have all of those mistakes, and in the long-run they don’t really show.
I finally put a coin next to me and after each decrease row, I’d flip over the coin to help me remember which side (right or wrong) to work the next decrease. Heads meant right side row. It really helped. I also recommend you stop on a decrease row when putting the project down for a while.
Yarn and Yardage
Both shawls were knit with Spud & Chloe Fine. It has an unusual 65 grams per skein. The large triangle on the blue shawl has 8 showy lines, however, the final pattern has 7 lines per section. That’s because the first used every last yard, too close to publish. It was also a bit larger than I wanted after blocking.
Blocking
Wet blocking this shawl is essential. It smooths out the lines and elongates the scarf. There are times when I just steam block my projects, especially hats and scarves. Not here, it makes a big difference.
The unblocked triangles on the left are not as long and elegant as the finished photos. On the right, the pink and gray is not yet blocked. See how much shorter it is?
I have to admit, I do get carried away with enthusiasm with some of the designs. That is certainly the case here. I find I am wearing it whenever the evenings turn chilly, a common occurrence here at 7,000 feet altitude where we got 6″ of snow in June! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Helpful Links
- Introduction to Showy Garter e-Book on Ravelry
- Granite Lake Shawl pattern on Ravelry
- First Showy Garter blog post
- Our website with link to Free Showy Decrease patterns
9 comments on “Granite Lake Shawl Adds Motion to Garter”
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Oh my goodness! I LOVE this pattern. Thank you so much for posting it.
Thanks Maggie, I’m a bit crazy about it myself. 🙂
Lovely shawl Laura, your link to the pattern on Ravelry doesn’t work however – thought you’d want to know! Best, Val
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Val, My mistake on Ravelry. You have to activate both the e-book and the pattern. I only did the e-book. Thanks for letting me know!
Wow! You are really opening new avenues for me! Love it, and big THANKS for the push.
This is so pretty! I especially like the blue and yellow one. Looks like I will have to knit another shawl soon…
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