Chrysanthemum Shawl

Some designs come more easily than others. For weeks, I had the image of a lattice created with elongated diamonds with each diamond surrounded by a vibrant contrasting color, but I couldn’t decide how to make it. Fair Isle would be too heavy. Intarsia would have too many bobbins to fiddle with (which would make for an incredibly unpleasant knit)!

What I finally created was a solid stockinette fabric with just the mere impression of the elongated diamonds. The individual cells are created with increases and decreases and surrounded with twisted stitches. The adjacent twisted stitches create a deliberate ladder between the cells. When the base fabric is complete it is firmly blocked and then embellished with the contrasting color using surface crochet. As I worked the embellishing I realized my elongated diamonds felt very floral–very “chrystanthemummy”.

This design uses my Chrysanthemum fabric to create a delicate shawl. It’s pictured here in Knit Picks Stroll