Top-down, full of texture and color, worked in a lace weight yarn and the third course in the Dinner Party Collection: Manicotti Main Course hits the right flavor for Summer!

The Dinner Party Collection is a collection of shawls inspired by different dishes, which together would create a yummy meal for a dinner party. Each shawl is named after a different course and each pattern includes the recipe for the dish which inspired the design. My husband loves to cook and we have decided to combine our respective talents in this collection: I create the knitting patterns and he the recipes.
Our third course is Manicotti Main Course, a top-down lace shawlette that combines color with texture in a light and airy summer accessory. The easy and straightforward lace and colorwork patterns allow for relaxed yet interesting knitting; simply decide which color combination you fancy and cast on! Manicotti Main Course takes only 280 yards of a main color and 180 yards of a contrasting color yarn.

The accompanying recipe is Brandon’s Spinach Manicotti and Roasted Salmon recipe. Enjoy!

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Length along top edge after blocking: 45 inches or 114.5cm.
Depth from top edge to bottom edge at deepest point after blocking: 13 inches or 33cm.

YARN USED TO MAKE SHAWL PICTURED
MC: Madelinetosh Prairie 100% merino wool; 840yds/768m per 100g; color: Nutmeg; 1 skein.
CC: Knit Picks Shadow 100% merino wool; 440yds/402m per 50g; color: Eucalyptus; 1 skein.

MATERIALS NEEDED
Lace weight yarn, approximate yardage:
MC: 280yds or 256m.
CC: 180yds or 165m.
29-inch (or larger) US #3/3.25mm circular needle or size needed to obtain gauge.
Darning needle.

GAUGE
23 sts/30 rows = 4 x 4 inches in stockinette stitch AFTER BLOCKING. Gauge is not crucial for this project, however, to get the dimensions of the shawl pictured it is best to obtain gauge.

TECHNIQUES

Casting on stitches.
Binding off stitches.
Increasing.
Decreasing.
Simple lace knitting.

PATTERN NOTES
The shawl is worked from the top down. The shape is created by increasing stitches on each edge using the “make 1” increase. A 3-stitches wide garter stitch edge prevents the shawl from curling.
After binding off all stitches the shawl is blocked into shape. This is when you will be able to pull out the lower parts of the lace on the bottom of the shawl and pin them to create the points.