Kate Atherley Lemon Difficult Wrap Knitting Pattern

Kate Atherley Lemon Difficult Shawl

What is Being Made

The Lemon Difficult is a slightly asymmetrical triangle shawl designed by Kate Atherley to showcase variegated and multi-colored yarn in a sophisticated way. This shawl is ideal for knitters who have accumulated those challenging one-of-a-kind limited-edition skeins from indie dyers, yarn festivals, or experimental home dyeing projects. The finished shawl is smooshy, warm, and easy to wear, making it a practical yet statement-making accessory. At the recommended gauge, the piece measures approximately 52 inches along the top edge and 21 inches at its deepest point, though the size is entirely flexible and can be adjusted based on yarn availability and personal preference.

Design Philosophy and Yarn Application

Variegated and heavily multi-colored yarns present unique challenges in knitting projects. In traditional sock construction, such yarns create busy, muddled stripes. Lace patterns resist the visual complexity of variegated colorways, and garter stitch can cause pooling and strange color collisions. The Lemon Difficult pattern solves this problem by using the variegated yarn as a background color in a two-color brioche rib construction. This technique creates spectacular shadow and relief effects, allowing the crazy colorway to enhance rather than overwhelm the finished piece. Depending on how intense the variegated yarn is, the shawl can become a true statement piece or display a more tasteful but still visually interesting colorway in a clever and subtle fashion.

Techniques Used

• Top-down construction: The shawl is worked from the top edge downward, allowing for flexible sizing and easy adjustment of the finished dimensions
• Seamless knitting: The shawl is constructed as one continuous piece without seaming
• Worked flat: Despite being seamless, the shawl is worked flat rather than in the round
• Two-color brioche rib: The primary technique used throughout the shawl, which creates dimensional texture and shadow effects. Two-color brioche is notably easier to work than single-color brioche because the color changes make it easier to see what you are doing and track your stitches
• Striping: The pattern incorporates strategic color changes between the variegated main color and a coordinating second color

Stitches and Stitch Techniques

The Lemon Difficult pattern centers on brioche ribbing, a specialized knitting technique that creates a highly elastic, dimensional fabric with pronounced vertical texture. Brioche rib involves yarn overs and knit stitches worked together in a specific sequence to create the characteristic lifted, cushioned appearance. While brioche knitting can seem intimidating to beginners, the two-color version used in this pattern is actually more forgiving than single-color brioche. The color contrast makes it significantly easier to see which stitches you are working and helps prevent mistakes. The pattern includes detailed instructions suitable for knitters attempting brioche for the first time, though the technique does require attention and focus. Once you establish a rhythm with the brioche rib, the work becomes meditative and suitable for knitting alongside audiobooks or podcasts.

Materials

The Lemon Difficult requires two contrasting yarns worked together throughout the project. The main color (MC) should be your variegated or multi-colored yarn, with the pattern using 50 grams of a 100-gram skein. A second coordinating yarn provides the contrast color for the two-color brioche rib, also using approximately 50 grams. The pattern is flexible regarding total yardage, allowing you to work larger if you have additional yarn available. Appropriate knitting needles for your chosen yarn weight are required, though specific needle size recommendations would be determined by your yarn's gauge specifications. The shawl's flexible sizing means you can continue working until you achieve your desired dimensions, making this pattern adaptable to various yarn quantities and personal preferences.