Having just said only a week ago, “Nope, not keen on symmetrical triangular shawlettes—hey, look at this chevron-shaped shawlette I made,” I’m now telling you about another symmetrical triangular shawlette that I knitted. Nobody reads this blog expecting consistency from me, do they? In my defense, the finished shawlette is pretty nifty despite its triangularity. And here’s some consistency: Desert Rain is a pattern by Janina Kallio, and I’ve knitted several of her shawlette patterns.
This started as several of my projects do: I was doing a bit of stash-busting, and I’d pulled out this hank of Valley Yarns Leyden that called to me. What I needed was a pattern that would set off the yarn well, be interesting enough that I’d finish it—I so do not need more UFOs in my life—and would make something that I’d actually wear. The first condition was the trickiest because the yarn had just enough color variation in it to make highly textured patterns doubtful, while not being wild enough itself to totally catch the eye (so I didn’t want to do a completely quiet pattern either, even if that didn’t violate the second condition).
Desert Rain met those conditions despite being a triangular shawl. The diagonal lines of yarnovers add interest both while knitting the shawlette. I ripped and tinked a lot more than I thought I would—it’s a lot easier than you’d think to put those yarnovers and decreases just one stitch off and only realize it four rows later. But the wide bands of garter stitch show the colors off nicely without distracting from them. What surprised me was that I had to go all the way up to size 8 (5.0 mm) needles to get gauge. With fingering-weight yarn, that made for a very drapey fabric, which solved a lot of my issues with symmetrical triangular shawlettes.
I didn’t have quite enough yarn to work the shawlette exactly as designed—now there’s another bit of consistency with Janina Kallio’s patterns I could do without—but this is the kind of pattern where that doesn’t really matter. The missing bit is in the right corner and not noticeable, especially when I’m wearing the shawlette. Speaking of wearing it…
Would I make another one? Maybe—what yarn am I trying to use? I’m thinking the symmetrical triangle shape does best as a light, drapey shawlette, like Desert Rain because of its very loose gauge. Maybe I should try working a symmetrical triangle pattern in laceweight yarn and see what happens. But for now, I’m putting my energies into seeing what I can do with chevron-shaped shawlettes.
Desert Rain
Patterns: Desert Rain
Yarn: Valley Yarns Leyden
Colorway: 11
Needle: 8 (5.0 mm)
Silver Threads 