Valley Yarns Greenway Shawl Knitting Pattern

Valley Yarns Greenway Shawl

What Is Being Made

The Greenway Shawl is a modern, elegantly proportioned triangular wrap designed by Kirsten Hipsky. This finished shawl measures approximately 66 inches wide across the top edge by 22 inches deep, making it a generous accessory suitable for layering or draping. The design features a sophisticated interplay of stitch patterns, with sleek biased mesh sections contrasting against rectangular beds of delicate floral lace, creating visual interest and textural variety in a single cohesive piece.

Techniques Used

This shawl is worked using several key knitting techniques that make it accessible to beginners while delivering professional results. The design employs seamless construction, meaning the entire shawl is knitted as one continuous piece without requiring seaming. The shawl is worked flat on straight needles, progressing from a small cast-on at the top point and expanding outward through strategic increases. The lace technique is central to the design, incorporating yarn overs and decreases to create openwork patterns. Wedge-shaped corner increases eliminate the need for increases in certain rows, providing a graphic shape while maintaining clean edges. The pattern uses garter stitch for the selvage edges, which creates neat, finished borders on both sides of the work.

Stitches Used

The Greenway Shawl employs a focused selection of fundamental knitting stitches:

• Knit (k) and purl (p) stitches form the foundation of the pattern
• Yarn overs (yo) create the openwork and lace elements throughout the design
• Knit two together (k2tog) decreases used in the biased mesh sections
• Slip, slip, knit (ssk) decreases that lean in the opposite direction from k2tog
• Central double decrease (CDD), a specialty stitch that slips two stitches together as if to knit two together, knits one stitch, then passes the two slipped stitches over the knit stitch, used for shaping
• Garter stitch (knitting every row) for the edge stitches that frame the lace sections

Materials and Gauge

The Greenway Shawl is designed to use approximately 800 yards of yarn from one cone of Valley Yarns 2/10 Colrain Lace in the Green colorway. This yarn is a blend of 50% Merino wool and 50% Tencel, totaling 1,540 yards per 8.8 ounces, which provides a luxurious drape and subtle sheen appropriate for a lace shawl. The pattern calls for US size 5 (3.75mm) needles, though knitters should use the needle size that achieves the specified gauge of approximately 6 stitches to 1 inch in stockinette stitch. The project also requires stitch markers: two in one color (color A) and four in a contrasting color (color B) to track pattern repeats and structural landmarks as the shawl expands.

Difficulty Level

Rated as a beginner project, the Greenway Shawl introduces lace knitting fundamentals without overwhelming complexity. The pattern uses straightforward abbreviations and common decreases, making it an excellent gateway into lace construction for knitters ready to expand their skills beyond basic stockinette stitch.