Occasionally, I feel like working on easy knitting projects, such as dishcloths, instead of working on sweaters, or other complicated projects, that would require focusing on a pattern. As a result of my occasional tendencies towards mindless knitting, I have a nice stash of cotton yarn, which has been used primarily for making knitted dishcloths, the perfect mindless knitting project. However, I have knit far more dishcloths than I could ever need, or give away, so I figured I should find another project that would be good for worsted weight cotton yarn, and great for moments when I just want to relax and knit.
As a result of my brainstorming, I thought a shawl would be a great project for my cotton yarn. I came up with a shawl pattern that didn’t require too much focus on the pattern. No worrying about lots of increases or decreases or changing stitch patterns, just lots of garter stitch, with the occasional yarn over/knit 2 together pattern for a couple sections of holes.
This pattern uses 5 different colours of yarn, solid or ombres, and with the large selection of cotton yarns out there, it can be made in almost any colour pallet. For my shawl I opted for Bernat Handicrafter in brown, grey, cream, and green/teal. Though any worsted weight cotton yarn would work, such as Lion Brand, Lily Sugar’n Cream, and Red Heart’s Creme de la Creme.
Shawl Pattern
This pattern uses worsted weight cotton yarn, such as Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, in 5 colours. Each colour requires 100g/160 yards for solids and 85g/136 yards for ombres/stripes.
The shawl pictured was made with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in following colours. Colour A (Overcast, 160 yards/100g), Colour B, (Off-white, 160 yards/100g), Colour C (Warm Brown, 160 yards/100g), Colour D (Rickrack Ombre, 136 yards/85 g), Colour E (Teal, 160 yards/100g).
Abbreviations
pm – place marker
sm – slip marker
yo – yarn over
k2tg – knit 2 together
With Colour A, cast on 5 stitches.
Stripe 1 (Colour A) – 30 Rows
Row 1 – knit 2, pm, k1, pm, k2
Row 2 – k1, yo, k1, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k1, yo, k1 (9 stitches)
Row 3 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 4 – k1, yo, *k2tg, yo, *repeat until 1 stitch before marker, k1, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k1, *yo, k2tg, *repeat until last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat Rows 3 and 4 fourteen (14) more times.
Should have 65 stitches on needle (32 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 2 (Colour B) – 6 Rows
Row 31 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 32 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 31 and 32 two more times
77 stitches on needle (38 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 3 (Colour C) – 4 Rows
Row 37 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 38 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 37 and 38 one more time
85 stitches on needle (42 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 4 (Colour D) – 28 Rows
Row 41 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 42 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 41 and 42 thirteen (13) more times
141 stitches on needle (70 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 5 (Colour C) – 4 Rows
Row 69 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 70 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 69 and 70 one more time
149 stitches on needle (74 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 6 (Colour B) – 6 Rows
Row 73 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 74 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 73 and 74 two more times
161 stitches on needle (80 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 7 (Colour C) – 4 Rows
Row 79 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 80 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 79 and 80 one more time
169 stitches on needle (84 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 8 (Colour E) – 26 Rows
Row 83 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 84 – k1, yo, *k2tg, yo, *repeat until 1 stitch before marker, k1, yo, sm, yo, k1, *yo, k2tg, *repeat until last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat Rows 83 and 84 twelve (12) more times.
Should have 221 stitches on needle (110 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 9 (Colour C) – 4 Rows
Row 109 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 110 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 109 and 110 one more time
229 stitches on needle (114 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 10 (Colour B) – 6 Rows
Row 113 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 114 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 113 and 114 two more times
241 stitches on needle (120 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 11 (Colour C) – 4 Rows
Row 119 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 120 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 119 and 120 one more time
249 stitches on needle (124 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 12 (Colour D) – 8 Rows
Row 123 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 124 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 123 and 124 three (3) more times
265 stitches on needle (132 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 13 (Colour C) – 4 Rows
Row 131 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 132 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 131 and 132 one more time
273 stitches on needle (136 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 14 (Colour B) – 6 Rows
Row 135 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 136 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 135 and 136 two more times
285 stitches on needle (142 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Stripe 15 (Colour A) – 10 Rows
Row 141 – k to m, sm, k1, sm, k to end
Row 142 – k1, yo, k to m, yo, sm, k1, sm, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1 (4 stitches increased)
Repeat these Rows 141 and 142 four more times
305 stitches on needle (152 stitches on each side, 1 stitch in the middle)
Bind off.
I used a stretchy bind off for my shawl. A couple good tutorials that I have used are Elastic Bind Off or Simple Stretchy Bind Off.