After teaching shadow knitting for a couple of years, I decided to design a simple, yet striking, shawl using this clever colorwork technique. Mira Color of Baah Yarns supplied the luxurious yarn--a sumptuous blend of 30%cashmere and 70% merino. The pattern is developed by alternating two rows each of two colors. The second row of each color is worked in a combination of knit and purl stitches to form purl ridges on the right side of the piece. These purl ridges give the illusion of vertical stripes reminiscent of intarsia patterns, but there’s no need to change colors across any row. A simple pattern of paired increases and decreases worked every right-side row produces the chevron effect.

This shawl used three skeins each of two colors (Burgundy and Obsidian).