Long pendulous chains of sweet scented flowers, twining viney fingers that grope from one support to the next, ropey stems that tighten lovingly around pillars and posts. Wisteria are amongst the most beautiful flowering plants in the world, and also amongst the most difficult plants to manage in a domestic garden. I loved sitting under the wisteria arch in my father’s urban garden. He loved his wisteria, too, despite the many days spent shoring up support frames and beating back the plant’s endless scouting tendrils.

The Wisteria shawl is a large crescent shaped shawl worked from the bottom of the lace ‘skirt’ upwards. The fortitude of the long cast on is rewarded by a finish requiring the grafting of a mere six stitches in a reverse-tab shaping at the nape of the neck. This pattern requires both a lace weight and a fingering weight yarn. I recommend that the lace weight yarn be a solid or semi-solid colour; the fingering weight yarn worked in garter stitch can be as variegated as your heart desires.

Materials needed:

• @800y lace weight yarn (solid, semi-solid, or kettle dyed)
• @400y fingering weight yarn (contrast or co-ordinate to the lace weight yarn; variegate friendly)
• 3.5mm needle (long cord circular)
• 4mm needle (circular or long straight as preferred)
• stitch markers to mark repeats recommended (@50)
• removable row markers (optional)

A note on gauge:
There are two weights of yarn called for in the pattern; both are needed, and are worked separately. There is no gauge called for, as I do not consider gauge to be terribly important for a shawl.

Many of the test knitters used less yarn than called for, and particularly less of the fingering weight.