Penn Cove is a slightly tapered rectangle shawl that’s knit in two different directions. It begins with a narrow panel of garter stitch rows and cables. Then stitches are picked up on one edge of this panel and the shawl body is worked in long pattern rows. There are small cables running along both sides of the shawl and an I-cord bind off to neatly finish the top edge.

This shawl design is a tribute to my childhood in the Pacific Northwest. My family had a particular fondness for taking ferry rides, walking beaches, exploring trails, having picnics, skipping stones and building beach fires at the shore.

I’ve used lacy chevrons and zigzag and bramble stitch patterns to interpret the mountains, sea, wild shoreline and forests of Whidbey Island. Penn Cove includes gansey motifs from old seafarer pullovers of the Netherlands, the place my ancestors emigrated from in the late 1800s, to farm on this beautiful Washington island.

This design uses basic knit and purl stitches, yarn over increases, directional decreases, and basic cables. The stitch patterns are provided in written rows. Additional instructions for picking up stitches and I-cord bind off are included in the pattern.

Penn Cove can be made in a single color or in two colors. Approximate total of 960 yards in a single color or 300 yards color A & 660 yards color B.

Abundant Earth Fiber provided their Sacred Ground base for this design. It’s an undyed non-superwash 100% merino base that is bouncy and full of body. Other sport weight merino wool and blends are also suitable, but they may result in a different kind of fabric. Also available from Abundant Earth Fiber are Wool Tincture packets for hand dying - the skeins for these sample shawls were dyed by me using this product in color Sage for the single color shawl, and colors Shade 2 & Citrine for A & B in two color shawl.

Learn more about the inspiration for this shawl in my Seawords blog on spoutknits.com, and search #spoutknitspenncove on Instagram to see photos of the dying process for Penn Cove using Wool Tinctures.