Ridged Shawl Wrap Knitting Pattern

Ridged Shawl in Plymouth Yarn Nettle Grove

What is Being Made

The Ridged Shawl is a triangular knit wrap designed with a generous 61-inch wingspan after blocking. This intermediate-level knitting project creates a reversible shawl, meaning both sides of the finished piece are equally attractive and can be worn as either the right or wrong side. The shawl combines structural ridges with lace elements, making it a versatile accessory suitable for layering or draping across the shoulders.

Techniques Used

This pattern employs several fundamental and intermediate knitting techniques to achieve its finished structure:

• Increase methods: The shawl begins with a small cast-on and grows through strategic increases using the knitfront-and-back stitch (kf&b), which adds one stitch per increase row to create the triangular shape
• Yarn overs and decreases: Yarn overs (yo) paired with knit-two-together (k2tog) decreases form the reversible lace stitch pattern, creating openwork details without compromising the shawl's structural integrity
• Garter stitch foundation: The base of the shawl is worked in garter stitch (knitting every row), which creates the characteristic horizontal ridges and provides a stable foundation for the lace elements
• Edge pickup: After completing the main body, stitches are picked up along one side edge to create a finished border, requiring careful stitch pickup along the row ends
• Blocking: Wet blocking is essential to achieve the final 61-inch wingspan and to even out the lace pattern and ridges

Stitches Used

The Ridged Shawl utilizes a focused set of essential knitting stitches:

• Knit (k): The primary stitch throughout the pattern, worked in every row to create the garter stitch base and ridged texture
• Knit-front-and-back (kf&b): An increase stitch that creates one new stitch from a single stitch, used strategically to shape the triangular shawl
• Knit two together (k2tog): A right-leaning decrease stitch paired with yarn overs to create the reversible lace pattern
• Yarn over (yo): Creates the openwork holes in the lace stitch, paired with k2tog decreases to maintain stitch count within pattern rows

Lace Stitch Pattern

The reversible lace stitch is the signature pattern element of this shawl. Row 1 of the lace pattern reads: knit one stitch, then repeat yarn over followed by knit two together across the row. This simple two-stitch repeat creates an elegant, consistent openwork design. Because the pattern is reversible—meaning it looks the same on both sides—there is no designated right or wrong side to the finished fabric. The lace stitch is introduced after the initial setup rows and is integrated with garter stitch edge stitches to frame the openwork.

Materials

The Ridged Shawl in Plymouth Yarn Nettle Grove requires minimal materials, making it an efficient project:

• Yarn: Three 50-gram balls of Plymouth Yarn Nettle Grove in color 36 Sandcastle
• Needles: US Size 7 (4.5mm) 32-inch circular needle
• Gauge: 18 stitches and 36 rows equal 4 inches in garter stitch after blocking on US Size 7 needles

Pattern Structure

The shawl is constructed in two main sections. The primary triangular body begins with a three-stitch cast-on and grows through 16-row repeats of a combination pattern that integrates increases with the lace stitch. This sequence is repeated seventeen times, followed by a partial repeat of rows one through seven to reach the final stitch count of 143 stitches. Once the main body is complete, a side edge is worked by picking up stitches along one edge of the shawl and adding additional rows with increases before binding off. The use of a stretchy bind-off method is recommended to ensure the finished edges remain flexible and maintain the shawl's drape.