After learning a lot from my first real attempt at shawl design, I wanted to try again. I was inspired to try a new design with some beautiful yarns I had in stash. Keep reading for my experience knitting and designing the Nimbus Drift shawl:
YARN
- Abyssal
- Tide
- Chlorophus
- Bioluminescent
- Coral
- Starfish
- Floating
- Anemone
I was really excited to cast on this project because I wanted to use this beautiful collection from Artemis Yarns. I got the 50g-skein set of the Aquatic Summer collection and the colors were so perfect. But since I only had half-skeins, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough of a color as I got to the larger sections of my shawl. So, I added a skein to my palette of the color Crystalline from Kindred Red that I had in stash. This color is super pretty and has elements of the Aquatic Summer colors speckled in.
I used my yarn swift and ball winder to cake up all my skeins. I was really excited about the combination of these colors and inspired to start knitting my new shawl design!
PLANNING + PREP
With the Trinity Brioche Shawl (my first shawl design), I struggled a little with the shaping. I needed to spend a little more time calculating increases and counting rows. Luckily the brioche stitch is very stretchy and forgiving. My first shawl design still turned out ok and I was really proud of my first attempt, but I learned a lot that I wanted to apply to this next design.
For the Nimbus Drift shawl, I wanted to keep the edging super simple. I planned to do a faux I-cord edge, and that way I could focus on the stitch patterns within the body.
I also wanted to knit a semi-circular shape, so I had a little notebook nearby to write out my increase calculations. As I mentioned in my First Shawl Design post, I watched the Westknits Workshop on Top-Down Shawl Design which had good information on increase/shaping formulas.
And finally, I went through my stitch dictionary to plan out some motifs that I wanted to incorporate into my design. My favorite shawl I’ve ever knit is the Fantastitch. It was my first shawl, so maybe that’s why I love it, but I wanted to knit a similar sampler-style shawl. I like this stitch dictionary because it has a lot of different types of stitches, and it has directions to knit most of them in multiple ways (top-down flat, in the round, etc.).
I didn’t want to plan out too much in advance because it’s more fun for me to knit and make decisions as I go.
NIMBUS DRIFT SHAWL
Casting On + Getting Started
I started out with an I-cord tab cast on to match with my planned faux I-cord edging. I knit this shawl on US 5 needles and a 50″ cable. These were my 5″ needles that I bought separately from my interchangeable set. I prefer the 5″ needles because they are more comfortable for me when knitting a large shawl.
My little cast on of the Crystalline color was so cute and I was excited to see the relationship with the other colors.
I knit a stripe with the Bioluminescent color from Artemis Yarns and then a variation of the diamond tweed pattern using the Coral and Anemone colors.Then I knit a purl ridge using the Abyssal color.
Throughout these sections, I was tracking my increases and counting my rows to ensure the semi-circular shaping. I was actually writing out the pattern as I went which took a little extra time, but I’m happy because I plan on eventually typing up my notes and knitting this shawl again.
Slip Stitch Rib + Pattern Increases
I was loving how the shawl was looking and wanted to use a new-to-me stitch pattern in the next section. I knit the slip stitch rib pattern in the Chlorophus color. Everything was looking good, but as I incorporated the side increases, I messed up the pattern repeat.
I ripped the section back and restart the rib pattern again. This time I used stitch markers to frame the pattern which made it easier for me to see what stitches were needed as I increased the edges.
Color Planning + Diagonal Seed Stitch
This shawl was so much fun to knit and I was excited to see all of the colors come together. I knit a stripe and a section of seed stitch before thinking about how I wanted to incorporate the variegated, Crystalline yarn.
I decided to knit a striped section using the Crystalline and the Starfish color. This section was a simple knit, so I could relax a bit and think about what colors I wanted to use next. I wanted to try and use the colors equally as best as I could.
I knit an increase stripe in Anemone and then the diagonal seed stitch pattern in Tide. This was a new stitch to me, but it was just simple knits and purls. The trickiest part again was just incorporating the pattern in to the new edge increases. I messed up again and had to rip back to get it right.
Ripping back was frustrating in the moment, but it’s really not a big deal when it means I’ll be happy with the result.
Chains + Spine Stitch
I knit the chains pattern when I attempted my first shawl and I really liked how it looked. I wanted to knit it again in this shawl, but I wasn’t sure what colors I wanted to use. For the section width, I thought three chains made the most sense, but did I want the chains all the same color? or three different colors?
I knit the background in Floating, and the first chain in Abyssal. With this stitch pattern, I needed to count stitches and plan out how I wanted the chain to start and end. I wanted the chain to be symmetrical within the row, so I mapped out the center of my shawl and then counted the pattern repeats back to the beginning so that the chain would be centered.
With the next chain, I decided to use the Bioluminescent color because I thought three navy chains would look a little too dark or prominent. The placement of this and the third chain was based on that first chain, so I didn’t need to do any more math for these rows. And then I ended with another Abyssal chain to frame the section.
I knit the next seed stitch section in Coral, and then another new to me stitch — spine stitch — in Anemone. All of these stitch patterns are in that stitch dictionary I bought.
The spine stitch uses little cables to create the prettiest look. It was a little difficult to get used to the cabling without a needle like the dictionary explains, but I think this is my favorite section. The color is super vibrant and really highlights the detail of the stitch.
Stitch Repeats
For the next few sections I wanted to repeat some of the stitch patterns I had already done. The repeats were a nice break from the spine stitch, and also helped to tie the shawl together.
I knit another stripe, a section of diagonal seed stitch, stripes, slip stitch rib, and seed stitch. I was having fun and enjoying how my shawl was coming together. All along I was keeping my counts and tracking my increases in order to maintain the semi-circle shaping.
Dashes + Welts + Edging
I wanted to try and knit a section that incorporated a rainbow of all the colors. I decided to knit the dashes pattern with the Abyssal as the background and a stripe of the other colors throughout. This section is so pretty and I actually think this one is my favorite because of the colors.
Next, I knit a couple horizontal welts in Crystalline which looks super pretty and almost like an extension of the rainbow colors from the dashes section. I was over 500 stitches at this point and running low on yarn quantities. So I started looking up different edging stitches in the stitch dictionary.
When I knit my first shawl design, I used a modification on the Maderia shell edging. I thought that looked really pretty in that shawl, but I wanted to make the stripes slightly thicker in this shawl. So, for each stripe, I changed Row 2 to a knit row, and then repeated Rows 3-4 once — for a total of 6 rows each color.
I was able to knit the edging in four colors before my yarn was getting too low. And then I switched to Floating for my icord border. I don’t usually use a lighter color for my icord, but it was all that I had left with enough yardage.
NIMBUS DRIFT SHAWL BLOCKING
I let my shawl soak in cool water with a little soap and a color catcher for about 15 minutes. I was surprised when there was no color bleed in the water at all; usually I have a little color left in the water. But maybe it’s mostly with the bright pinks I like to knit with.
I gently squeezed out the water with my hands as best as I could. And then I laid out my shawl on a beach towel and rolled it up to get out even more of the water.
From there, I set out the shawl on my three sets (yes, I got a third set!) of blocking mats. I like these mats because they have grid lines printed on that I can use to help lay out my knits straight. I like to line up the top of a shawl along one of the gridlines and pin it with my rainbow knit blockers. Then I can stretch and pin the edges to get the level of detail I want.
With this shawl, I pinned down each chevron point to help open up that lace detailing and exaggerate the points. Once the shawl was dry, I used a darning needle to weave in the ends. Sometimes I like to do it before washing, but I was eager to see this shawl blocked.
This shawl is so pretty and blocking helped to open up the ribbed stitches and lace detailing to give it a crisp and professional look.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I love my Nimbus Drift shawl so much. It’s so beautiful and it was so much fun to knit. I loved the colors as I was knitting and I think they all work so well together. This shawl looks so fun and it makes me happy when I see it. I will definitely type up my notes and knit this exact shawl or something similar again. I’m really proud of this design!
If you are interested in designing your own shawl or other project, I really encourage you to try it out. You can find stitch dictionaries at the library (try out Libby for a free online library), and there are lots of free resources online for shaping and techniques. I bought the Top-Down Shawl Design Westknits Workshop (on sale) and it was very beginner friendly. If you are still overwhelmed, modifying an existing pattern is a great way to start getting comfortable creating your own design.
I had been making modifications to my favorite designs for a while, and even combined my favorite shawls before I felt like I was ready to try something on my own. I still have a lot to learn, but that’s super exciting for me.
If this knitting and design experience post was helpful for you, please consider sharing it. Check out my Ravelry page to see my other projects and what I’m working on next!
