Pattern: Suncrest Shawl - originally published in June of 2012.
Yarn: Red Label Chasmere Silk Single.
Ravelry pattern page here and original blog post here.
I’m excited to jump back in to my Hello Old Friend series. I started it last year with the idea of revisiting my older designs, seeing how they’ve held up and also reminding you that they still exist.
Voila Suncrest! I was (and still am!) very proud of this simple little pattern. I love everything about it. It’s one of those deceptively simple yet still very impressive looking knits. The only thing I would change about it were I designing it today instead of 7 years ago is the yardage limitation. Many of my earlier designs had a real focus on maximizing every yard of a single skein of yarn. While I am still a thrifty knitter at heart and want my patterns to be accessible to everyone (there is nothing worse than a pattern that requires 460 yards of fingering weight yarn when most sock yarns come in 420-450 yard skeins) at this yardage it’s really more of a shawlette. Even on my petite frame it’s small and I would like to have at least shown a larger version to give the knitter more options. It is a very easily modified to make it larger, but the designer that I am today would include instructions for more than one size rather than expect the knitter to modify it on their own.
Keeping yarn requirements in mind is a very important aspect of what I do as a designer. As you know, I often design patterns that call for lots of small bits of several different colours, which I don’t think I would feel comfortable doing if I didn’t offer Palettes and Mini Skein Sets to compliment them. I’ve also designed many patterns for my Year In Colour Club (making a comeback in one form or another for 2020!) and the single skein limitation in that format is very real. It’s an added challenge, but one that I welcome!
That photo of the shawl all pinned out for blocking is still one of my all time favourites!