Helsinki in April began when I was planning a trip to Finland and needed a knitting project that was easily worked on while traveling around the city and beyond, without having to refer to charts or lots of written instructions.

It is a large triangular-shaped shawl with a center spine with increases worked every other row at the edges and at each side of the center stitch.

The stripes in the shawl increase subtly in width as the body of the shawl grows, providing an extra bit of visual interest.

The border of the shawl is worked in a simple eyelet pattern that highlights the colors in the variegated yarn.

Helsinki in April is designed to be knit with a yarn that has plenty of drape, such as the superwash merino fingering weight yarn used in the original design.

A total of 1,600 yards of yarn is needed for the full size of the shawl which measures 90” across at the top and 45” in depth down the center spine.

The stripes are created by alternating a semi-solid shade of yarn with two different coordinating variegated yarns, however one variegated yarn may be used as long as there are 800 total yards of the variegated shade.

To avoid flashing or pooling of colors in the variegated sections, it is recommended that a yarn that features short repeats of colors be used.