Poppy Seed is an easy top down crescent shaped shawl with a large stocking stitch section and shallow lace border, and is thus a good shawl with which to start your lace knitting adventure.

Poppy Seed is designed to highlight the beauty of variegated handspun yarn, which is otherwise lost in more complicated stitch patterns. Knit in Ashford’s delicious Merino/Silk “Poppy Seed” sliver, the resulting shawl is a delightfully rustic little beauty.

When substituting yarns choose a tonal or variegated laceweight or light fingering weight yarn. I recommend Woollen Rabbit’s Chantilly lace, but there are many other suitable yarns.

In this relatively simple lace pattern I encourage you to become confident about modifying patterns by offering some options to make different versions of the same shawl. Nupp placement is included in the charts, but if you don’t like nupps, use beads. If you don’t like beads either - then forgo both. I finished mine with a picot border, but you could omit those as well and work the stretchy cast off instead. Two sizes are given. The smaller shawl has an even simpler lace border, and instructions are given on how to work this alternative border in the larger size. A fourth chart is included which applies the much loved Old Shale pattern to the main shawl body. These are just some modifications to get you started, the rest is up to you!

NB: This is a good description of the right lifted increase.

Required Skills:
Increases: yarn over, Lifted Increases
Decreases: k2tog, ssk, sk2p, s2kp2
Nupps; 1 to 7 nupp
Picot Bind off

Full instructions are given on how to work these stitches

Final Measurements:
Grey Shawl: 49 cm (19 inches) deep at centre and 225 cm (89 inches) along the top/neck edge