Faroese shawl shaping is a simple, but elegant solution to the age-old problem of keeping a shawl on your shoulders. But why limit this shaping to lace patterning? (No insult intended to lace knitters…I’m a lace fanatic too, but I need variety.) Colorwork also looks great in a Faroese shape.

This shawl is a top-down Faroese-style with mosaic colorwork worked with two colors. I chose single-ply yarns for this project, because I love the look of singles in elongated stitches. The beginning tab is worked in stripes to better match the rest of the selvedge. Increases are worked on the wrong side and twisted to resemble make ones on the right side, which allows for keeping the stitches in pattern all the way to the selvedge.

The edging is a few rows of garter mosaic so the edging blends in nicely with the main pattern, and the bind-off is worked with both yarns for a braided look.

‘Alfarería’ is the Spanish word for pottery. Well, one of them anyway. There’s also ‘cerámica’, but that term more specifically refers to ceramics. The geometric forms of mosaic knitting make me think of ornamentation on pottery.

Finished measurements:
Shawlette
Width: 50 inches/127cm
Length: 16 inches/41cm

Shawl
Width: 75 inches/191cm
Length: 24 inches/61cm

Note: there is a line missing in the setup chart instructions between Row 4 and the note about the left and right charts being complete. It reads: “Repeat rows 1-4 three times more. 67 sts.” Errata should be updated on the website soon.