This easy, top-down shawl shows off handpainted yarns perfectly. Increases and decreases create zigzags within the fabric.

Where the yarn colors line up and would normally create pools, the stitch pattern transforms them into intricate-looking pops of color.

The yarn is a 55% silk/45% merino from Claudia’s Hand Painted Yarn. The combination of purples with silver and bronze is reminiscent of Allison’s grandmother Eloise’s limoges dishes. The sheen of the yarn really brings out the bronze and silver in the skein, giving the finished knitted fabric little pops of a metallic nature.

The pattern is exclusive to Simply Socks Yarn Company until November, 2013. The stitch pattern is a take on Lara’s Bellybutton Baby Blanket.

The kit is available (for now) here! When it stops working, it means it sold out.

There have been some questions about yarn amounts.

If your gauge is spot-on, you should have just enough yarn for this pattern. Otherwise (and these instructions are also in the pattern), if your first skein doesn’t take you almost to the end of section 1, skip to section 3 after working rows 1 through 24 of section 2 once and only rows 1 through 8 of section 2 again.

This makes the whole pattern 24 rows shorter, which should leave you plenty of yarn. The shawl will still look lovely, but the openwork area will be somewhat smaller.