YARN NOTE: The pattern is very adjustable to the yardage you have, as you may knit each section fewer or more times than the pattern states. A suggested minimum yardage for a good-sized shawl would be around 800 yds / 732 m. Likewise, if you’re using the yarn the pattern calls for, you can continue knitting each section until you run out of yarn if you’d like to use up every last bit.

Yarrow, or achillea millefolium, is among my favorite flowers. This shawl, Millefolium, is named for that gorgeous and hardy bloom. There are many varieties, and the yellow one that grows in my cold Maine climate is incredibly useful. Not only can it be collected for medicinal purposes, but it is one of the many flowers I grow that can be used to make beautiful colors on fiber. The yarn in this shawl, along with the kits I’ve created for the pattern, have all been dyed botanically by me. While some of the plants used have been collected from my backyard garden (yarrow, marigold, coreopsis and goldenrod), some have come from further afar. The shawl itself is simple enough to let the colors in each kit shine. The lace spine helps to create a widened triangular shape that sits nicely on the shoulders or around the neck. All the lacework takes place inside of the increases so that it is quite simple to keep track of where you are in the lace pattern.

Each kit contains three gradient colors. The colors in each kit will play together differently, some creating a higher contrast than others. I suggest starting with the lightest color and ending with the darkest, but this flexible shawl can be knit any number of ways. (By all means, knit it in a solid color if you like! It will be just as lovely!) In the sample pictured, the last two colors are so subtle that they almost appear as one color. The fun of botanically dyeing, for me, is just these kinds of surprises in color play. Enjoy this shawl pattern as a blank canvas for your most gorgeously dyed yarns.