The Changes Shawl is a project that emphasises colour play! You can really let your imagination run with this one as the colour combination options are endless. The pattern itself is constantly changing what you do in each section, from the direction of knitting, to the stitch patterns as well as the colour changes, all in all fully encompassing its name at each step!

What makes this design so enjoyable is that you never end up with too many stitches on your needles at any one time. For the majority of the shawl you actually have less than 100 stitches on the needles and for a couple sections its less than 200, making this a manageable project that doesn’t have overwhelmingly long rows, and yet you still have a huge shawl to show for it at the end.

I will be running a KAL in the Knitting Expat Podcast Group for this shawl so make sure to head over to the thread HERE.

I’ve also created a short video talking through some of the features of the shawl and explain other things regarding yardage for the design, you can watch that HERE.

What you will need:

• Yarn: 200gm – (900-920yrd/840-870m) Fingering weight yarn. You will be working with 2 full skeins in the same colourway (your Main Colour) and 10 x 20gm (80yrd/73m) mini skeins (Contrast Colours).

I highly recommend where possible to use a Main Colour yarn that has at least 460yrds/100gm in order to be sure you will not be short on yardage – Whilst I used the Adelaide base my skeins were on the heavier side and so had enough yardage. I have included some modification instructions in Section B for what changes to make if your yardage is short or you are concerned about running out of yarn. Alternatively ensure you have a third skein of your main colour to avoid running out.

Sample shawl used the following skeins all by Primrose Yarn Co on the Adelaide Singles Base (435yrds/115gm)

• MC - 2 full skeins of Charcoal & Glitter

• CC1- 20gm of Ratatat

• CC2 - 20gm of Landslide

• CC3 -20gm of Embers

• CC4 -20gm of Dirty Gold

• CC5 -20gm of Maple Leaf

• CC6 -20gm of Space Suit

• CC7 -20gm of Real Hipsters Wear Denim

• CC8 -20gm of Astrologie

• CC9 -20gm of Salem

• CC10 -20gm of Juxtapose

• Needles – 3.5mm (US4) and 3.75mm (US 5) on a minimum 32inch (80cm) cable. (It is also handy to have a spare long cabled set of needles in the same size or smaller than your larger needles, as in one section you will need to put some stitches on hold).

• Notions – You will need 2-4 stitch markers.

• Gauge – The gauge I got on the samples was approx. 22sts/ 4inches with your larger needles AFTER AGGRESSIVE BLOCKING, measured over stockinette stitch. Please note that gauge is not super important as long as you like the look of the fabric you are getting, however, significant differences could impact the overall width and length of your finished object, as well as the amount of yarn you may need.

• NOTE: if you know you are a loose knitter I would highly recommend going down a needle size in order to avoid risking running out of yarn.

Size of Shawl:

Finished measurements are Approx. 22in (56cm) wide and 83in(211cm) long

Please note your final finished size will vary depending on gauge, and how extensively the finished item is blocked.

Schematic:

The Schematic (last photo on the left) shows the layout of the shawl. The shawl is finished entirely with I-cord which is knit as you go so once you are done there is no further finishing work required.

For sections A, C & D you will always have less than 100 sts on the needles and during section B you will always have less than 200 sts. Further, the stitch counts during each section will never change so, while there is shaping, your overall stitch counts will not be changing in each section.

• You start by knitting the central square, Section A, then you pick up stitches along one edge of the square and along with the live stitches already on the needles you will proceed to knit Section B1.

• At the end of this section you will continue to knit in the same direction on half of the stitches for Section C1, the rest of the live stitches are put on hold.

• Once Section C1 is finished you bind off along that edge leaving the I-cord stitches live, then you turn the work and proceed to pick up stitches along the inside edge of section C1 and proceed to knit Section D1 incorporating the held stitches from B1 into the work as you go along.

• You bind off at the end section D1 up to the I-cord stitches which are then grafted to the I-cord stitches from section B1.

• Once this half is completed you go back and pick up stitches along the cast on edge and the other side edge of Section A and proceed to repeat the same instructions on the other half of the shawl.

I also suggest weaving in your ends as you go (although do this loosely so there is room for the fabric to move during blocking) after each section so you are not left with an overwhelming number of ends to weave in at the end. I also suggest waiting until you have blocked the shawl before trimming your ends.