Project of the Month: Butterfly | Papillon Shawl
We really flew away with our April Project of the Month! Highlighting the colorful Uneek Fingering Yarns, the Butterfly | Papillon Shawl by MarinJaKnits is a gorgeous and detailed piece. The shawl was made by one of our newest staff members, Nadia, who will share some of her experience working with this pattern.
The Butterfly | Papillon Shawl is designed by MarinJaKnits. The pattern is intended to be used with long transition multi-colorway yarns, like the Uneek Fingering, or with your own placed colored yarns (a great way to use up a yarn-stash!).
About the Yarns
Uneek Fingering 3001 Harvest (2 skeins)
Fibres: 100% Superwash Merino
Gauge: 28 – 32 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm)
Needles: 2.25 – 3.25 mm (US 1 – 3)
Weight: Fingering (1)
Length: 100 g / 435 yards (398 m)
Cascade Heritage Sock 5672 Real Black (1 skein)
Fibres: 75% Superwash Merino / 25% Nylon
Gauge: 28-32 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm)
Needles: 3.25 mm (US 3)
Weight: Fingering (1)
Length: 100 g / 437 yards (400 m)
The pattern design uses short row segments to create a stained glass window effect. The pattern works the long color changing segments of the Uneek Fingering to make little pockets of color in the shawl, with the Cascade Heritage bordering each segment.
Here are some other possible yarn combinations for this Butterfly shawl.
New Skills
The shawl is knit up predominantly in garter stitch, although it can easily be switched to stockinette for a different look.
Short Rows
Holli Yeoh’s class on Short Rows was a great introduction to the skill for Nadia, who had never tried short rows before! (None are currently scheduled but if interested in this class keep an eye out here for a repeat of it in the future). Nadia started her shawl in the German short row style, but found that she needed to knit an extra stitch before the wrap and turn to match the pattern’s segment placements. After knitting half of the shawl in German short row, she switched to the Wrap-and-Turn method and found that to be much simpler for this pattern.
As this shawl is recommended in garter stitch, picking up the short rows on the wrong side (WS) is different from picking up on the WS of a stockinette stitch. For a new knitter, this difference might be a little confusing, and it’s best to refer to tutorials before getting started!
Blocking
It is highly recommended to block this piece when finished to get clean edges and neat lines of the Cascade Heritage between color segments. Be sure to pay special attention to blocking the shawl to the desired length and width. For her first time blocking, Nadia found that the shawl could be stretched very long if you’re not careful.
Counting, Lots and Lots of Counting
The shawl is vertically symmetrical to mimic the wings of a butterfly. While the effect is stunning, it means us knitters have to spend more time paying attention to the number of stitches, especially in the short-row color pockets. Nadia strongly suggests placing stitch markers every 25 stitches while knitting a row, to avoid having to double back and count the entire row. By the end of the shawl, the stitch count reaches near 500!
What Else You Can Make
If you’ve browsed any of MarinJaKnits other patterns, you’ll find she uses the Uneek Urth yarns quite a bit. Here are some other patterns specifically designed for the Uneek yarns long color changing gradients in the same Butterfly style.
Come visit us in store to get a closer look at our sample. We are happy to help you put together your own color combo for this gorgeous shawl!
I just purchased your Butterfly-Papillon patern and 1 main color of URTH Uneek yarn and one URTH, Uneek contrast color. I have no idea how to read the pattern. Could you translate the first paragraph starting with MC[[3]] RS (61 sts)………
I don’t know what the following symbols mean: { } [ ] I think with your translation, I can do this. Thanks,
debbie
I think it is important for people to recognize the years of training and experience that goes into teaching skills such as these, as well as giving credit to those talented and patient enough to be able to provide this type of support; as such people who provide this type of support should be fairly compensated for their time in answering specific training questions such as this. I believe the going rate for a fibre arts tutorial is about $40/hour, and although this isn’t a service our store offers, we can pass along any email inquiries for private lessons to a few local teachers that do offer this resource. All the best!