This pattern for a small shawl or necker started with a fade set of skeins of gorgeous yarn dyed with indigo by the Border Mill, which is a small spinning and dyeing business located in Duns in the Scottish Borders. The yarn was in the bargain bucket when I visited their wonderful Mill Shop. The indigo was going – going – gone! Or Indigone. This shawl is worked from the outside in, and the colour gets paler as you go.

The yarn is lovely and drapey. I was concerned that it might curl unhelpfully if I made my shawl in stockinette stitch. The obvious answer was to work in garter stitch which not only lies flat naturally, but also looks equally good on both sides. The addition of lines of slipped stitches of each colour adds interest and makes the item completely reversible.

I have also made a larger version. The yarn for this came from my local yarn store, Ripping Yarns in Stokesley, and I chose it purely because it was available in a set of colours that I liked. It’s a lovely superfine superwash merino with 25% nylon.

the small version uses one 50g ball of each of 4 colours, the larger version uses two 50g balls of three colours and one ball of the palest colour.

And to complete the hat-trick, I have made a second small shawl in approximately rainbow-colored leftovers.

You can use any yarn you like, in any colours you like! I recommend that you work with a dark shade and a pale shade at any one time, so that the slipped stitches show best, and use a solid colour rather than variegated yarn.

Because I am a bit lazy, I like it best if my rows get shorter as I go along, as it then feels that I am knitting faster. This is a triangular shawl knitted from the outside in. The colours alternate on every row, so to do this you work two right side rows, one in each colour, then two wrong side rows.

I am super excited that Knitty has chosen to publish my pattern and I am really looking forward to seeing some completed items on the project pages!