Inanda shawl (customisation)

This week I am releasing my latest shawl design, Inanda.

Speckled and tonal yarns will look their best – as will you – in the simple texture, gentle colour shift and perfect shoulder-hugging shape of this delicate, feminine shawl. Inanda’s deep crescent grows from the top down with carefully spaced increases forming I-cord edged wings on either side. Single-row stripes create a subtle colour fade and an applied lace border completes this elegant classic. This shawl was designed specifically for my Great Auntie Cathie and is named Inanda after the house she called home for most of my life.

The pattern is written for one size, which I would deem to be bigger than a shawlette and smaller than a shawl. However, provided you have enough yarn, there is no reason that you couldn't customise the size of this shawl. Therefore, I have put together this little post to give the adventurous knitter the necessary tools to do so!

This shawl was designed for my Great Aunt Cathie, we picked colours that she would like and I wanted to make the best use of them. Should you wish to knit this shawl all in one colour, all you need to do is not work the single-row stripes and instead continue as you were (a note is given to remind you of this in the pattern).

Should you have more yarn, and you of course want to use as much as possible, then a rough guide is that you need 2/3rd of your yarn for the body and 1/3rd for the border. You should factor in some buffer, so I would subtract ~10% of your total yarn before making this estimation.

However, should you want a little more of guide then all you need is a set of scales and to follow the simple calculation given below. This will tell you if you have more than enough yarn to finish the border, and therefore you could decide to add in more rows. It is up to you how you put in your extra rows, but once you are done, you should proceed to the Border section for the setup.

To work each border repeat, approximately 4 m / 4.5 yards or yarn was used (this was 1 g for my yarn). In order to do this calculation, you will need to know the put-up (meters or yards, per gram) for your yarn.

Here we go:

Each repeat of the border “binds-off” 7 stitches from the shawl.

We do not include the 6 I-cord edging stitches in the count of stitches which need to be bound off in the border. Where spaces are given is where you need to fill in the relevant numbers for your project.

The yarn needed to work the border for a given number of stitches is:

Total stitch count ______ (A)

Border stitches 6 sts (B)

Stitches to bind off A−B = _____ (C)

Approx. meters needed (C÷7) x 4 = _____ (D)

Plus a 15% buffer D×1.15 = _____

This is the meters of yarn which you need to have left over when you start the border. Therefore, if you have a decent amount more than this, you can work some more rows to make your shawl larger, just make sure to keep check of how much yarn you have left, and how much you will THEN need to make the border (as you will have added more sts with your extra rows!)

I hope that you have a lot of fun knitting this beautiful and delicate piece. My aunt was THRILLED when I gave her the shawl, and I am sure you will be over the moon with yours too!

Happy Knitting