Shady Grove is a botanically inspired shawl featuring a delicate lace border filled with graceful leaves—my favorite type of lace pattern. The leaf lace pattern is easy to memorize and intuitive to knit. Thoughtful design details include a neat wrap-around garter selvedge along the wingspan edge, decorative slipped stitches framing the garter stitch body and a wavy edge treatment on the border.

Shady Grove is appropriate for both newer knitters who are looking to try a traditional leaf pattern simple lace that is not too daunting as well as experienced knitters looking for a relaxing, stress-free knit that works up quickly.

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

CONSTRUCTION: Shady Grove is worked sideways from end to end, with the lace border worked at the same time as the garter body. The elongated crescent shape is created by increasing one stitch every four rows when working the first half and then decreasing stitches at the same rate for the second half. The middle 14 rows of the shawl are worked straight with no increases or decreases.

SIZES: The size is easily adjustable to your available yardage. Detailed instructions explain how to use a digital scale to weigh your yarn when using limited quantities to make sure you don’t run out. (In a nutshell, the 20-row increase side chart is worked until at least 54% of the yarn remains before continuing through to the end.) But if you don’t have a scale, the pattern includes size and yardage estimates for 6 different sizes.

YARN CHOICE: Shady Grove is a great pattern to use for that one special skein of fingering or sock weight yarn you’ve been saving for just the right project. And it’s a great stash-buster, as the design will work well with a variety of yarn choices—tonal or slightly variegated hand-dyed yarns as well as gradients, heathers or solids. While dimensions and yardage are provided for fingering weight, Shady Grove could be worked in other yarn weights as well.

SAMPLE SHAWLS INFO: The three samples pictured show two different sizes: a smaller shawlette size (pictured in blue and peachy pink) as well as a larger shawl (pictured in magenta). The two shawlette size samples were worked with 7 repeats of Chart 2; both used 375 yards (343 m) and measure 57 x 13” (145 x 33 cm). The yarn I used for both is Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply in the Stonewashed (blue) and Adobe (peachy pink) colorways. The magenta shawl was worked with 10 repeats of Chart 2; it took 560 yards (512 m) and measures 74 x 16” (188 x 41 cm). For this larger shawl, I used one shawl-sized skein of Leading Men Fiber Arts Diva Fingering in the Trewe Love colorway.

ALSO INCLUDED are helpful hints and tips for calculating stitch counts for any size and blocking your Shady Grove to perfection.

“Shady Grove,” an Appalachian folk song that originated in the early 20th century, is a favorite of mine to play on both my acoustic guitars and dulcimers. It has a catchy modal melody that lends itself to many interpretations—instrumental and vocal, fast and slow, traditional to modern. Here are links to four very different versions: Clawhammer Guitar, Instrumental Bluegrass, Cello and Voice, and Traditional Bluegrass with Vocals.