Carolina Shibori Shawlette by Gina Wilde

Carolina Shibori Shawlette

Knitting
October 2014
Sport (12 wpi) ?
20 stitches and 32 rows = 4 inches
in Garter, pre-felted
US 6 - 4.0 mm
361 yards (330 m)
42” on longest edge x 14” top to tip depth (after felting)
English
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The Carolina Shibori Shawlette blends two yarns to a stunning shibori effect.
Silken Straw, a pure silk fiber, is worked with stripes of Sanctuary, our wool/silk blend.
A simple miter triangle with a beautiful central lace panel and elegant border is knit, then lightly felted to achieve the sensational drape and drama made possible by the shibori process.
The Silken Straw relaxes and softens during felting, while the Sanctuary fulls with a soft halo. The finished result is a dazzling little shawlette, made from just (2) skeins of yarn.

A Word about the Special Technique of Shibori Knitting…
While the Japanese word “shibori” cannot be directly translated into English, it basically denotes a “shape resist textile.” Most people are familiar with the concept of Tie Dye (originally called “tie and dye”), which is the most popular understanding of shibori. Ties such as rubber bands or strings are secured on a piece of fabric, and then that fabric is dyed; the fabric resists the dye where it has been bound.
Gina Wilde’s shibori design is an exploration of manipulating knit fabric, harnessing the effects of working differing types of yarns together (combing felting and non-felting fibers in one knit piece). In this shawl, the pure silk yarn (A) acts as a resist to the wool/silk felting yarn (B). When felted in a washing machine, the pure silk yarn actually grows in the process, while the wool/silk blend shrinks and felts (or fulls). The result produces a textured and dramatic knit fabric, one that is light and airy, rather than the heavy dense fabric achieved when using traditional felting methods and yarns.

ERRATA AS OF 11/5/14:
Sections 2 – 5: Work as for Section 1, increasing 4 sts every RS row, and continuing lace stitch pattern between markers when working in yarn A. Each section has 4 pattern reps (16 rows) in the central miter panel in yarn A, and yarn B is always worked entirely in garter st (4 rows). Each section yields 40 additional sts, with 32 sts gained in yarn A and 8 sts gained in yarn B – to 216 sts, at end of row 3 of Section 5.
Row 4 of Section 5 (WS): With yarn B, inc 18 sts evenly across row (increasing 9 sts on each side of the central panel marker) ~ to 234 sts.