Today I am excited to release my new shawl pattern! This is the Sail Away Shawl and it is now available to download from the website, Ravelry and Payhip.

Sail Away with me...

Imagine the freedom of sailing on the open water. Windblown hair. Salty skin. Setting your sights on the horizon. Letting the wind take you wherever it will and trusting that all will be OK. That's the feeling that inspired this shawl…

This half-circle shawl is worked from the top down and shaped like your view from the ship’s bow. After the garter tab cast-on, it’s smooth sailing through the body of stockinette. As you approach the border, you’ll hoist your sails through a series of eyelets and wavy lace motifs, before casting off and sailing into the sunset - with a lovely new shawl :)

This shawl was designed to showcase a merino and silk blend yarn; however, most 4-ply or sock-weight yarns would work. A solid or semi-solid colour will best show off the lace. 
 

The shawl uses 1 skein of 100g 4ply, sock or fingering-weight yarn at 400m. The sample shawl was worked in Under the Olive Tree Knits Steni Vala 4ply yarn, a lustrous and velvety blend of merino and silk. This yarn and pattern would work beautifully with any of the solid shades available in the Dyed to order range, or any of the semi-solid 'Shades of....' range

 

Kits for the Sail Away shawl are also available on the website. And when you purchase the kit you get the pattern for free! 

 

Kits are available in a choice of colours from the Steni Vala 'Shades of...' range. This is a range of semi-solid and dyed yarns on a 50% silk, 50% merino base.

Each kit comes with the yarn, pattern and stitch marker and is presented in an organza project bag. You can also choose to add the 3.75mm circular needle if you wish.

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The pattern has been professionally tech edited by James Bartley and was tested by a fantastic group of test knitters too! 

 

Thank you Karen, Lila, Lynn, Sabina, Sharon, Tori and Yvonne.

 

 

Here's what the test knitters had to say:

 

"This shawl is so pretty! The sail boat lace motifs are so effective; it’s like looking out at little yachts at sea. I love it!" - Sabina

 

"Jem has done it again! Another easy to follow pattern with gorgeous results. The lace is unique with its mix of ssk and k2tog. It’s both a mindless knit (the first half-ish is stockinette with edge increases) and a focused knit, so it’s the best of both worlds. And the finished product is wonderful. The Sail Away Shawl is a perfect one skein project" - Tori 

 

"If you enjoy wearing a shawl to accessorize an outfit, Sail Away is a beautiful shawl to have. I enjoyed knitting this shawl. It is well written, and  the repeated sections are easy to remember" - Lila

 

"I was very impressed and pleased that each row had a stitch count and I thought that the addition of the count/note sheet was brilliant" - Lynn

 

I hope you like the new pattern! If you make this shawl do come and share your progress and photos in our friendly Facebook Group - Under the Olive Tree Knitters - I'd love to see it!

 

Jem