Design Inspiration: Für Eloise Shawl

Fur Eloise is another pattern that started out as a pattern in a kit for Simply Socks Yarn Company. Sadly, you can't buy more of the yarn it was designed for, individually. But, you can buy the pattern from me. 

This easy, top-down shawl shows off handpainted yarns perfectly. Increases and decreases create zigzags within the fabric.

Where the yarn colors line up and would normally create pools, the stitch pattern transforms them into intricate-looking pops of color.

With that said, sometimes yarn + pattern produces effects that are hard to predict. (But that's what makes it fun!)

Kath Gordon, one of my testers, used a great yarn that I've never seen before  (probably because it's German). It's called Superba Poems and it's by Rico Design. It has super-long color repeats, which make the shawl she made look almost as if it was knit with stripes of yarn. 

Photo by Kath Gordon. Used with her permission.

Another tester, Jan, used all but three yards of a skein (yikes!) of Cascade Yarns Heritage 150 Paints to make her version. 

Jan doesn't mess around when blocking!

Another great yarn for this pattern would be Friea Handpaint's Flux Fingering Weight. It would take three skeins to work, but it would be very worth it.

I would also love to see it in 4 skeins of Painter's Palette Premium Merino by Koigu, 2 skeins of Socks that Rock Lightweight by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, or a very subtle 2 skeins of tosh merino light by madelinetosh. I will probably never have time to knit more versions of this shawl, but a girl can dream...