Gardiner Yarn Works Stampede Wrap Knitting Pattern

Stampede Shawl by Gardiner Yarn Works

What Is Being Made

The Stampede is a luxurious laceweight shawl and wrap designed by Chrissy Gardiner as part of the Indie Lace collection. This is a blanket-like wrap featuring an elegant combination of entrelac construction and leaf lace motifs arranged in diamond shapes. The pictured sample measures 15 inches wide by 82 inches long, though the design is easily customizable by working fewer or more pattern repeats to achieve shorter or longer dimensions. This versatile wrap can be worn as a generous shawl or secured with a favorite shawl pin for various styling options.

Techniques Used

The Stampede showcases the modular entrelac knitting technique as its primary construction method. Entrelac is a sophisticated approach that creates geometric triangular and rectangular sections worked in a specific sequence. The pattern features:

• Entrelac construction – The defining technique of this design, involving triangles that start and end every other row, with center rectangles knitted onto the piece as you progress
• Lace motifs – Modified leaf lace patterns that create a path of diamond shapes reminiscent of hoofprints, inspired by the rodeo theme of the yarn colorway
• Seamless, worked flat – The shawl is constructed in one piece without seaming, worked flat on straight needles rather than in the round
• Bottom-up construction – The piece is built from the bottom edge upward

Stitches Used

The pattern employs fundamental knitting stitches combined to create both the structural entrelac sections and the decorative lace elements. Key stitches include:

• Knit (k) – The basic knit stitch forming the foundation of stockinette sections
• Purl (p) – Used in stockinette and pattern sections
• Knit 2 together (k2tog) – A decrease stitch essential for shaping the entrelac triangles and creating lace decreases
• Knit in front and back (k-fb) – An increase stitch used for building stitches within the modular sections
• Make 1 (m1) – An increase worked by picking up the strand between stitches, used throughout the lace and entrelac sections
• Slip stitch (sl 1) – Used at the beginning of rows for neat edges

The pattern is worked over 29 stitches and 57 rows for each complete repeat, allowing knitters to customize the final dimensions by adjusting the number of repeats worked.

Materials and Tools

The Stampede requires approximately 1100 yards of laceweight or fingering-weight yarn. The sample featured in the pattern was knitted using Alpha B Yarn Luxe B, a luxurious blend of 50% superwash merino and 50% silk, dyed in the colorway "Pendleton Round-Up" – named after Oregon's famous fall rodeo. This silk-merino base provides both softness and drape ideal for lace shawls.

The pattern calls for US 6 (4mm) needles or the size needed to obtain the designer's gauge. The recommended gauge is 6 stitches and 8 rows per inch measured over stockinette stitch, though the designer notes that gauge is not critical to this particular project, offering flexibility for yarn substitutions.

Design Inspiration

Designer Chrissy Gardiner selected entrelac as the primary technique for this pattern because of her love for its modular nature and geometric beauty. The combination of the rodeo-themed yarn colorway and the zigzag characteristics of entrelac construction directly inspired the "Stampede" name. The modified leaf lace motifs were carefully chosen and adapted to create diamond shapes that evoke hoofprints, reinforcing the Western rodeo theme throughout the design.