Shore up!

Shore is the fourth shawl in the beach collection and it is available today! If you have already purchased Knitting the Beach you will have just received an email saying that a pattern you purchased has been updated. If you haven’t, you can buy Shore now for $6 USD.

The design for Shore started with this beautiful old lace pattern, sometimes called Print of the Wave.

Print of the Wave Lace

knitting-and.com

 

I knew I wanted to use this lace pattern somewhere in the collection, but it’s been popular for well over a hundred years, and has been used in just about every way imaginable. Finding a way to use it that hasn’t been done before wasn’t easy. Then I came across this variation, and it gave me an idea.

Print of the Wave elaborated

heirloom-knitting.co.uk

Shore, like Tide, is a triangle-shaped shawl worked from one point to the other. The lace pattern follows the triangular shape, slanting first to the left as stitches are increased toward the center point, then changing direction and angling right as stitches are decreased to the end. I think the pictures below demonstrate pretty clearly why this pattern is called Print of the Wave.

redbubble.com

The Shore Shawl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of my test knitters did a fantastic job with this pattern. You can see their projects here. Several of them used laceweight yarn, rather than the fingering weight called for in the pattern, with beautiful results. I even made my own laceweight version with a hand-painted alpaca yarn that has been languishing in my stash for five years, waiting for just the right pattern! This pattern is very easy to adjust to different yarn weights, sizes, and gauges. Just pick a yarn and needle size that gives you a fabric you like, and work as many or as few repeats of the lace pattern as you want. The only rule is that you must have at least half of your yarn remaining when you reach the center.

Although the beginning of each row is slightly different, the lace pattern is really only a six row repeat, with just three pattern rows. Once you find the rhythm of it, it’s easy to knit and do something else. When you begin the decrease rows it’s not a bad idea to put in a lifeline, as the pattern shifts in an unexpected way, and you’ll have to pay attention to the first couple of rows to get back into the rhythm of it. I hope you enjoy knitting Shore, and share your pictures!

Thank you for knitting!