Cranford Shawl

So my Week of Finished Things concludes with a test knit I’ve been doing for a friend. When PAKnitWit was designing this shawl and knitting on it during our Hurricane Knitters meetings, I knew it was going to be right up my alley. I asked to test-knit on the spot.


Stupid lack of simultaneous daylight + photographer = disappointing indoor photo.
Because I am at a Serious Simultaneous Deadlines portion of my year, I really buckled down to make sure I finished this test knit within the required window. If I wasn’t the first person finished, I was awfully close.

As you can see from the direction of the garter ridges, this shawl is knit from corner-to-corner. And there is not one purl stitch in the entire thing, which makes it a great relaxing and/or multitasking project.


The shawl starts and finishes with a minimum number of stitches, then launches into the pattern repeat for the shawl. There is certainly a bit of a learning curve out of the gate, but by the time I was about 15 rows in, I was cruising along.


I love the ruffle. It’s just enough of a detail to give the finished shawl a little punch, while keeping it plenty simple (and non-holey) for my tomboy tastes.


The shawl includes a bit of a “neck flap” for extra warmth. Just a little bit to make sure that your neck stays covered so this shawl can double as a sweater. It works. I tried it the other day when I was chilly, but too lazy to go track down a sweatshirt.


The bottom-center “point” of the shawl is very un-pointy, another detail that I liked very much. The ruffle is slightly less ruffl-ey, but I think it works for the overall aesthetic of the project.


The slip-stitch edge is a beautiful finishing touch throughout the entire shawl. I did mess this part up early in the process, but it didn’t even require thought by the time I was about 30% through the shawl. All this from a knitter who is generally anti-slip-stitch-edge (well, at least if I’m seaming or picking up stitches. That’s certainly not the case here!)


This project used just over three skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool, which makes for a nice hefty shawl. It did take a swim, but I didn’t actually block it. I just laid it out flat to dry and fluffed up the ruffle a little bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if I knit this pattern again in a fun semisolid or low-contrast variegated. The possibilities are endless.

Cranford Shawl

Pattern: Cranford Shawl by Sarah Jordan (will be released soon!)
Size: Shawl-Sized
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Color: Platinum
Quantity: I definitely needed the third skein, but not a whole lot of it. Guessing by weight, I’d say it was a little under 1,100 yards of aran-weight.
Started: 17 January 2012
Finished: 29 January 2012
Mods: It’s a test knit. Hell no, I didn’t mod anything!