Pattern: The Golden Hour by Andrea Mowry.
Yarn: TFA Dusty Rose Palette featuring PureWash DK in velvet, pink grapefruit, trinity, rose grey, smoke, natural, sand, stone.
Ravelry Project page here.
I initially sat down with this beautiful Dusty Rose Palette and my stitch dictionaries all set to design my own shawl featuring texture and colour. I was thinking some stripes, some lace, some colourwork, maybe even some bobbles! As the wheels started turning I realized that the reason I had such a specific idea of what I wanted this shawl to look like was because I had seen this shawl before. What I really wanted was this, the Golden Hour Shawl by Andrea Mowry is exactly the look I was after. So I set aside my design plans and embarked on a relaxing and enjoyable knit following somebody else perfectly written pattern. And I am so happy with the results!
The fact that this shawl features exactly 8 bands of motifs and the Palettes include exactly 8 colourways means it was meant to be! I knit this worsted weight pattern with DK weight yarn without any trouble at all. I did run short on the last colourway (the stone stripe with the eyelets) but just stopped when I ran out of yarn and proceeded to the border, easy peasy. I love the size of the shawl - though smaller than the original worsted weight sample it’s plenty cozy for me.
When I posted some photos of this shawl to Instagram I received a few requests to see the backside since it can be weird to picture what the backside of stranded knitting looks like. This shawl actually features mosaic knitting, which is different from stranded knitting in that it uses only 1 colour per row. You still have floats, but they are the result of slipped stitches. From the backside, the two techniques look very similar though I think that it would be easier to ensure tidy floats with mosaic knitting.
My bobbles aren’t quite as bobblelicious as I would like, but I guess that’s just because I did them as written and as written they were intended for worsted weight and would be bigger. I could have modified the bobble instructions. I’m happy with them as is, but y’know, if you’re going to do bobbles then DO BOBBLES!
This was a very fun knit. Shawls are just the best. I feel like DK weight shawls are underrated and they deserve to be in the spotlight more often! For my climate they are pretty perfect. They are still light and airy yet provide the extra cush and coziness that are always welcome on a cold winter’s day.