In my series Lady Wynwood’s Spies, my character Keriah is more emotional than her friend Phoebe, and so when writing about her in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 6: Martyr, naturally I described her scarf as having more lively colors than the greens and blues that Phoebe favors.
I didn’t really have a particular yarn colorway in mind when I wrote the scene, but when looking through my stash to knit her scarf, I found the Carnival colorway in Knit Picks Chroma Twist Fingering, and it was absolutely perfect for her.
Chroma Twist Fingering is discontinued, but you could knit this in Chroma Fingering or any other color-transitional yarn.
In the Regency era, a tri-color 3-ply yarn like Chroma Twist Fingering would probably not have been sold in shops, but it also may not have been completely unheard of. It is made by simply dying the wool rather than the finished yarn, and then the dyed wool would be split into 3 parts and each part spun into a single ply, before all three plies were spun together. When knitting the melded colors, the color in the fabric looks much like a watercolor painting.
The scarf construction is a narrow crescent shape. I’ve mostly only seen circle, square, and triangle shapes in the antique books I’ve read, so it’s unlikely this shape was in use in the Regency period, but I knit it this way because the construction paired with the color-transitioning yarn makes the scarf have beautiful swoops of color.
If you’d like a large crescent shawl instead of a scarf, simply keep increasing until the shawl is the depth you’d like, then switch to Chart C and start decreasing. The ends of the crescent will be longer than a typical triangular shawl, but you can knit a very nicely sized crescent shawl with two balls of yarn instead of only one.
The lace pattern is an antique pattern, simply called “#54, Very Pretty,” in The Lady's Assistant, volume 2 by Mrs. Jane Gaugain, published in 1842, page 151 (click on the link to view and/or download the free PDF of the digitally scanned book). However, the pattern is very simple and was likely in use during the Regency era decades earlier, except that it would have been passed from knitter to knitter through “recipes” rather than being published in a book.
The lace pattern is a little asymmetrical, but it’s simple enough that the pattern itself is not lost in the multi-colored yarn. This pattern might also look good with a variegated colorway instead of a color-transitioning colorway.
I also made this pattern into a PDF, which you can download here.
Yarn: Knit Picks Chroma Twist Fingering (fingering weight, 70% Superwash Wool, 30% Nylon, 437 yards/100 grams) Carnival colorway or any fingering weight color-transitioning yarn, 1 ball
Size: 70” long and 12” deep at widest point after blocking
Needles: US 4 (3.50 mm)
Gauge: Unstretched, the lace pattern is 18 stitches (3 pattern repeats) over 3.75 inches.
k = knitp = purl
YO = yarn over
k2tog = knit two together
p2tog = purl two together
p3tog = purl three together
ssk = slip, slip, knit
Instructions:
Cast on 2 stitches, then follow the set-up chart A.
After row 38 of the set-up chart A, switch to chart B and knit the 12 row repeat until you have a little more than 50 grams of yarn remaining, or half the amount of yarn you are using. Then switch to Chart C.
When you have 21 stitches left on the needle, switch to Chart D.
After row 38, break yarn and pass the end through the loop to tie off. Weave in ends.
Wash and block scarf to desired dimensions.
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My Lady Wynwood’s Spies series starts with Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 1: Archer.
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