Universal Yarn Medallion Wrap Knitting Pattern

Universal Yarn Medallion Wrap

What Is Being Made

The Medallion Wrap is a knitted shawl designed by Amy Gunderson featuring a sophisticated lace pattern worked in a warm golden colorway. This finished wrap measures 18 inches wide by 76 inches long, making it an elegant accessory suitable for layering or draping. The design gets its name from the rounded medallion shapes created by the lace pattern combined with the brilliant golden color of the yarn, though the same stitch pattern could present as teardrops, candies, or polka dots when worked in alternative colors.

Techniques Used

This wrap is worked bottom-up on a flat surface using lace knitting techniques. The construction begins with a garter stitch foundation, then transitions into the primary Medallion Lace pattern. The wrap features garter stitch edging maintained throughout the piece to frame the delicate lace center. Lace knitting in this project involves strategic yarn overs and decreases that create openwork motifs, requiring attention to stitch counts and pattern repeats to achieve the intended medallion effect.

Stitches and Pattern Details

The Medallion Wrap uses several fundamental knitting stitches and techniques:

• Garter stitch: Used for the initial 5 rows and maintained as a 3-stitch border on each edge throughout the piece
• Yarn overs (yo): Create the openwork and lace characteristics of the design
• Knit two together (k2tog) and slip, slip, knit (ssk): Right-leaning and left-leaning decreases that balance yarn overs and shape the medallion motifs
• Central Decrease (CDD): A specialized decrease worked on right-side and wrong-side rows (slip 2 knitwise, knit 1, pass slipped stitches over on RS; slip 2 knitwise from back, purl 1, pass slipped stitches over on WS) that creates definition in the lace pattern
• Purl stitches: Used in alternating rows to create texture and dimension
• Slip stitch: Used to slip markers and manage stitch placement

The Medallion Lace pattern itself is a 14-row repeat that is intuitive and easily memorized, making it accessible for knitters with intermediate lace experience. The pattern is worked on both right-side and wrong-side rows, requiring attention to the specific stitch sequence for each row to maintain pattern integrity.

Materials

The Medallion Wrap is worked using Universal Yarn Finn, a blend yarn composed of 50% acrylic, 25% superwash merino, and 25% alpaca. This fiber combination provides durability, softness, and easy care. The project requires 3 skeins of Finn in colorway 104 Goldenrod, with each skein containing 50 grams and 230 yards of yardage.

Needles required are US Size 6 (4 mm) circular needles in a 24-inch length, or the size needed to obtain proper gauge. The recommended gauge is 18 stitches by 20 rows over 4 inches in the Medallion Lace pattern. A tapestry needle is needed for finishing and weaving in ends. The pattern begins with a cast-on of 81 stitches.