I saw this shawl on a Modern Daily Knitting post about applied i-cord. In that post, Kay talks us through her own method for the finishing of her Volt shawl, which is not the same as the pattern but gives just as nice a result. The zig zags of the Volt pattern appealed to me greatly, as did the size of the finished wrap. You know I love a blanket masquerading as a wearable item.
As a side note, Kay’s advice here is great and I followed her instructions, using a three stitch i-cord. I also took Kay’s advice about always replacing a SSK with a knit two through back loop and have never looked back. I find it so much more economical to do. Top tip.
Anyway, off I went and bought the pattern (Ravelry link) by Grace Anna Farrow (designer’s site). Then I headed over to the Katia website and after some deliberation bought some Promo Fin in white, black and two shades of grey. Which two shades? No idea – I actually ordered four and only used two of them, which is part of the reason I have so much grey in stash. It was a very inexpensive option, pleasant to knit with, and soaked/blocked up nice and soft.
The yarn was a considerably heavier weight than the pattern calls for and I do have a slight regret on that front. It’s a sport weight and if I were to make another Volt (which isn’t out of the question) I’d get a light fingering weight as suggested. The sport gave me a heavier, very cosy shawl which I do wear often, but lacks some of the elegance of a finer knit.
I’m not generally a fan of yellow, and had bought a turquoise yarn for the accent rows and edging. When it arrived and I had a good look at it, I felt called to put it away, and stay true to the pattern’s proposed colour scheme. There was some yellow in stash that was close enough in weight to get away with.
I went ahead and used up two skeins of each colour, rather than counting rows. It worked out really well with only small scraps left over, and the resulting wider stripes meant that I used one fewer colour than the pattern. I am completely happy with that choice – another colour would have made the shawl absolutely enormous, and following the row count would have left several partial skeins in my stash. Neither of those was desirable.
I get a lot of compliments on this piece, and I’d recommend it without hesitation. It’s a well- written pattern but there are also many helpful comments on Ravelry projects with regard to doing increases and decreases all on the right side, if that’s what you prefer.
The Crafty Yarnster 