My exploration of shawls this summer was inspired by favorite local yarn shop, Eat.Sleep.Knit, and their Flash KAL (Knit A-Long) for the simple yet stunning pattern Clapotis. This pattern was perfect for showing off the beauty and texture of hand-dyed yarn and I loved how it turned out using Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk Worsted (now discontinued) in the color, The Final Frontier.

I enjoyed it so much, I decided to pull out some beautiful Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal I had stashed about two years ago to knit up another one. This fingering weight yarn created an even lighter shawl perfect for fall in southern climes.

Encouraged by my success, I looked for another project and found Shockwaves by Beata Jezek. I was immediately drawn to the quirky asymmetrical chevrons and bold color choices of many of the projects on Ravelry. In the end, I decided to contrast the pattern with a soft ombre of beautiful blue-greys of Madelinetosh Eyre Light. The depth of tone and soft single ply of the yarn kept this very large shawl from becoming overly heavy.

My last shawl project of the summer looks forward to autumn with the sunset colors of Claudia Handpainted Yarns Addiction (aptly named) in Be My Valentine and Makes Me Hungry applied to Melanie Berg’s Assante. The simple striping of this pattern allowed the brighter mix of colors to emerge from dusky darkness for a light and fluttery shawl that can be worn like a scarf. While I love the result, the shawl is knit length-wise, so as the rows build, the row length becomes considerable, especially to a knitter used to row counts of under 200 stitches. That aside, I highly recommend this pattern and may knit another one in the future.