Triangular shawls come in all shapes and sizes. They get their shape by adjusting the rate of increasing at the center or along the edges. The most common triangular shawl that one encounters these days is called a right isosceles triangle. This means that two sides form a 90° angle and the other two angles are each 45°.
When I saw this pink and purple skein of Red Heart it’s a wrap Rainbow gradient yarn, I knew that a shallower triangle would be just the thing to show off the long color transitions in this yarn.
Yesterday we saw how the gradients can be played within a rectangular scarf, but today and tomorrow, we’ll tackle the obtuse isosceles triangle.
The Gothic Diffusion shawl stretched out to flaunt the long color transitions in the Parfait colorway of it’s a wrap Rainbow yarn.
This shawl starts at the center of the long (almost 7¼’ [220cm]) edge. As you knit, you increase dramatically on each edge, add stitches at the center point at a much slower rate.
The increases at the center point of the shawl are more gradual and help the visual lines of the pattern appear to be curved.
Some notes on the pattern
The full pattern will be posted tomorrow, but there are a few key elements that I’d like to highlight.
The long edge increases happen very quickly, which produces a border that’s literally a little rough around the edges. To rectify this, I crocheted a very easy and subtle border around the whole shawl. If you are an experienced shawl knitter, feel free to add your own built-in lace inset edgings or knitted on edgings as you see fit. This crochet edge could be reproduced in knitting with a 2-stitch i-cord, if crochet isn’t your thing.
The Gothic arches lace pattern is quite simple to do. You’ll notice from the photos that as you increase, new stitches are at first worked in altering garter stitch ridges and stockinette valleys until enough stitches have been added on to introduce a full pattern repeat of the Gothic arches lace. Because the rate of increase isn’t directly proportional to the multiple of stitches in the Gothic arches lace motif, the inclusion of a new full pattern repeat is different at the long edges than at the center point. To help you maneuver through this, stitch markers will be your heroes.
Another detail you may notice in the photos are the garter stitch ridges that cut across all the Gothic arches lace motifs every once in a while. This is completely optional, but I liked the effect, so that’s what I did!
As the rows get longer, the distance between the transitions grows less, but not so skinny that you can’t enjoy each color and each fade.
In preparation for tomorrow, you may want to cast on and practice the following stitches:
k2tog Knit 2 stitches together – insert the right-hand (RH) needle into the front legs of the 2nd and first sts on the left-hand (LH) needle together, wrap yarn and knit through. This is a right-leaning decrease.
ssk Slip, slip, knit – slip the first stitch on the LH needle knit-wise, slip the next stitch on the LH needle purlwise, return both stitches to the LH needle, knit through the 2 back loops of the “returned” stitches together. This is a left-leaning decrease.
s2kp2 Slip 2 stitches together, knit, pass the 2 slipped stitches over: insert RH needle tip in the front legs of the 2nd and first sts on LH needle as if to k2tog, but slip them off LH needle, knit the next stitch, then pass the 2 slipped stitches over the stitch you just knit. This is a centered double decrease.
By changing one ply at a time, Red Heart it’s a wrap Rainbow transitions through 5 colors in this lovely gradient.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow and sharing the detailed pattern instructions to make the”Gothic Diffusion shawl with me using only 1 cake of Red Heart it’s a wrap Rainbow yarn. Which of the 8 colorways will you choose?
This is part 4 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 3: Use cross-fading gradient yarns to knit a quick project
Go to part 5: 1 cake of Red Heart it’s a wrap Rainbow knits up the Gothic Diffusion shawl
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