Richland is a contemporary triangular lace shawl featuring a deeply textured chevron lace panel flanked by a stockinette and Estonian star stitch body pattern. I’ve had it in my head for a while to design a shawl inspired by the stained glass work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Some of the most beautiful examples of Wright’s window art may be found at his residential masterpiece, the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, NY. Many of the Martin House windows feature stacked chevron motifs with intersecting horizontal lines in various configurations; Richland is my lace interpretation of these stained glass designs. The Martin House windows which inspired this design may be found here and here. I named the shawl after Wright’s birthplace of Richland Center, Wisconsin.

The Richland pattern includes both charts and full written out instructions for those of you who prefer not to use charts.

Lace newbies will appreciate that Richland is so intuitive to knit that they won’t even have to look at the charts after too long, and more experienced knitters will enjoy the relaxing rhythm of the various stitch patterns.

While dimensions and yardage are provided for DK weight, Richland could effectively be worked in fingering weight or heavier. The size is very easy to customize by changing the number of Chart 5 repeats; full instructions are provided, including how to calculate stitch counts for any size. Also included are helpful video links and detailed blocking instructions.

SIZE AND YARDAGE: My red sample shawl pictured used about 520 yards of Hazel Knits Lively DK yarn (Vamp colorway) and measures 60 x 26” ((152 x 66 cm). The blue sample shawl used about 545 yards (498 m) of Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio DK yarn (Hollins Market colorway) and measures about the same as the red one. The gold sample shawl is a larger size with 28 repeats of Chart 5. I used about 725 yards (663 m) of Hazel Knits Lively DK yarn (Hoppy Blonde colorway); it measures 72 x 28” (183 x 71 cm).

The yardage range of 520-570 yards (476 x 521 m) is based upon test knitter data. When working the pattern size, those who have a limited amount of yarn (550 yards or less) may wish to weigh the yarn at the end of the last several Chart 5 repeats (there are 21 of them) to keep an eye on the yardage consumption per repeat so as not to run out. More details are found on the pattern regarding weighing yarn and what to do if you find yourself playing yarn chicken!

CONSTRUCTION: Richland is an asymmetrical triangle which starts at the narrow end of the lace panel with only three stitches cast on. Once the panel reaches its full width of three 16-stitch chevron pattern repeats, it is flanked to the left by the star stitch body pattern. The wingspan edge has a make-one-right increase on each right-side row and is the longest side of the triangle. The panel edge is the second-longest side of the triangle; the bind-off edge is the shortest side.

NEEDLES: I used US 6/4.0mm needles for the main part of the shawl, then bound off with US 8 / 5.0mm for the bind off. If working the pattern, a 24” (60 cm) cable is plenty long enough, but if working a larger size, you may wish to use the longer 32” (80 cm) cable length.