Budding, the yarn used in the original pattern is no longer being produced, but any fingering weight yarn with 400 yds/100 grams will do nicely. Due to the overall lace pattern, it is best worked with solid or tonal colors.

Ouarzazate was originally designed as part of a yarn club for Knitting Rose Yarns many years ago.

Ouarzazate (pronounced “Wazazat”) is a southern province of Morocco known as the “Valley of Roses”. The flowers grown in this area are cultivated especially for the perfume industry. In the town of El Kelaâ M’Gouna you can attend the annual “Moroccan Festival of Roses” in early May. Quarzazate is also known as Africa’s Hollywood. Many films were shot in this remote area including Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Mummy and Babel. More importantly to our design, Ouarzazate, Morocco is home to the mines which produce some of the finest examples of Cobaltoan Calcite. Cobaltoan Calcite was our inspiration for both the color and the lacework in this shawl. The mineral naturally forms this multi-sided points and almost always contains “inclusions” or other bits of stuff that were trapped inside as the mineral forms. Thus, I have chosen a geometric lace pattern that comes to points and I have used beads that are contrasting to the yarn to resemble the inclusions. The shawl is constructed by working the edging first, then picking up stitches along the straight edge of the edging and working short rows of increasing length back and forth, centered in the middle of the edging. This gives you a gradual slope instead of a sharp point at the bottom of the shawl. The beads are placed into the knitting as you work using a crochet hook to transfer each bead onto the stitch where needed. The short rows are worked without using a wrap and turn to conceal the hole left at the end of each row – adding to the overall lacy look.