Pattern Spotlight: Mentzelia Shawlette by Tian Connaughton
Tian Connaughton is a knit and crochet designer who specializes in accessories. She has a wide range of designs and many techniques in her tool belt: textures, cables, lace, trims, and clever shaping. You'll also find some really cute cardigans in her Ravelry store. She joins us today with her newest design, Mentzelia Shawlette:
With the brand Anzula, you know what to expect with their yarns, every time. Their yarns are consistently high quality and the colors, beautiful. Their latest addition to the line, Ava, a sport weight 80/10/10 (merino/cashmere/nylon) blend is no exception. It's everything I've come to expect from this brand and dyer.
A couple months ago, Charlie at Anzula reached out to a bunch of designers about their new yarn, seeking designs featuring the new yarn. I was so thrilled to be included in that list of designers. Immediately my brain went into overdrive. So many ideas came up, but for my first pattern, I wanted to create a pattern that would be perfect for a single skein (because sometimes we grab just one skein at a show or our LYS to try out), and a design that is easy enough to adjust with additional skeins. Thus, the Mentzelia Shawlette was born.
You know when you have that single skein of precious yarn that you can’t imagine just knitting any ole’ pattern. Well, I had only the one skein of this color of this yarn and I wanted to make the very best of it. Of course the yarn is in Poppy. I have to say, this color is by far my favorite color in the long range of Anzula's colorways.
At 330 yards per skein, I figured for this design, big needles and lace would make this skein go pretty far, which it did! Worked sideways in stockinette stitch with a lovely lace edging, the Mentzelia Shawlette allow you to use up every ounce of your precious single skein. The pattern is easy to remember and very intuitive. As you progress through the lace pattern, the edge stitch counts changes, increasing and decreasing as you to create the beautiful points along the edge of the shawlette.
You can find the Mentzelia Shawlette pattern on Ravelry. Ava will be appearing in yarn shops in the next couple of weeks and is available for special order from all shops that carry Anzula yarns, both LYS and online.