Pangea Shawl
Get out your needles and start knitting! Here’s the PDF for Step 1 of the Pangea Shawl—just click and print.
When I started knitting this piece in the silk/wool blend, I was thinking moss and lichen and bark—a sort of primordial forest. I was quite content with what I was producing, but at the same time, I kept imagining the shawl in blue as well, the sparkling, clear blue of a shallow, pristine bay above white sands. Hence the name Pangea, to honor a time when our planet was just one great land mass surrounded by one enormous sea.
Thanks to Kristine Brooks of Curious Creek Fibers and my test-knitter Chris, I’m now having the pleasure of watching the blue shawl I imagined come into being to compliment the completed green shawl.
The first few steps will go more quickly than the last few as the row length grows. I’ve tried to divide the knitting up so that most steps will offer you something a bit new (Step 3 is the exception, being a continuation of the second stitch established after the transition rows in Step 2.) At the end of Step 1, here’s what you’ll have:
Chris is running a lifeline as she finishes each step so you’ll be able to see where each new segment begins and ends as her shawl grows.
The Fine Print
I’m offering this pattern free of charge. Feel free to make photocopies and/or enlargements for your own use. If you want to share the pattern with others, please encourage them to check out this blog and print a pattern for themselves. You are welcome to use the shawl you knit from this pattern as part of a fundraiser for any non-profit (bazaars, raffles, etc.), but please do not sell it for commercial purposes and please do give a shout-out to What If Knits if you can.
Enjoy!
Large Pangea chart
Here is a larger version of Chart A for the Pangea shawl as a PDF file.
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Here’s Step 2 for Pangea, again illustrated by Chris’s lovely handiwork in Glaciar Lakes Wasonga from Curious Creek Fibers.
She’s run a red thread through her work at the end of Step 1, so that you can see the new section you’ll be knitting.
For this step, you’ll be finishing up the area you worked in Step 1. After that you’ll work two transition rows, which are written, but not charted. These will bring you up to the right number of stitches to continue on in the new, eight-stitch repeat lace pattern. The decreases in the eight-stitch pattern will be done as purl stitches. They’re mostly P3tog and P2tog, but there are a few P2togTBL—if you’re like me, you’ll need to concentrate a bit more on these (and perhaps stick your tongue out a bit), but they get easier as you go along. Knitting Help has a video of this stitch, just scroll down through the glossary to get to it.
For those of you who want larger charts, click here and here.
Note: On Chart B (both versions) the divided carat symbol stands for Sl2, K1, PSSO. My apologies for not catching that one—if you’re not sure if you have the corrected version, click here for the full instructions, and here for the large chart.
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This week’s picture is a bit janky: we wound up trying to take it much too late on Sunday night and found ourselves having to cope with all kinds of assistance from various felines. Damian, in particular, was in the mood for a game of “Kiss the Camera.”
Just focus on the bit along the upper right-hand edge that’s in focus and be kind about the blurry bits.
Note that Chris has run a second red thread along the boundary between steps 2 and 3.
The instructions for Step 3 are here.
The large version of Chart D for the Pangea shawl is here.
To be honest, Step 3 is the most boring step. It’s a continuation of the stitch pattern established at the end of Step 2. The nice part is that you’ll be able to enjoy the undulating lines this stitch adds to the shawl and to see all the texture purls add.
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As you read through the pdf, you’ll see that this step gives you the option of lengthening the shawl as much as you’d like or of shortening it slightly.
P.S. Here are the large-scale versions of Chart E, Chart F, and Chart G.
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Hooray! If you’ve made it this far, your Pangea Shawl is almost done. Click here to print out the final step. Click here for larger Chart H and larger Chart I, if you’d like.
I found the last nine rows—which are true lace, with increases and decreases on both right and wrong side—a bit challenging, but Chris says they went smoothly for her. Just don’t give in to any temptation to sip a bit of wine as you’re finishing up: early celebration could be disastrous!
Here’s Chris’s finished version of the shawl in a holiday setting.
And here’s one more look at my version of the shawl.
October 08 2009 07:59 pm
char on 18 Oct 2009 at 9:03 am #
thanks for a wonderful pattern!
keila on 26 Oct 2009 at 3:29 am #
Hello I’m from Brazil, and found your lovely recipe, thanks for sharing
she us … They were great both versions, and once again thank you
for their generosity, it is becoming rare in our country …
kisses
maria cnapoles on 01 Feb 2010 at 11:38 am #
would you kindly send me the pattern instructions for the “clementine Shawl” the one that has cables running horizontally. I have searched everywhere for it I have also called the yarn company Crystal Palace yarns.
thank you kindly,
maria
sarah-hope on 01 Feb 2010 at 1:37 pm #
Clementine was featured in Interweave knits. You’lls need to check their web site for availability.