After I finished knitting the What the Fade Shawl for my mom’s birthday present, I decided to tackle my next brioche project – the Ramble Shawl!
I have always LOVED the herringbone pattern with all that is within me. I even had my kitchen backsplash tiles installed in a herringbone pattern! It’s just one of those patterns that makes me super happy everytime I see it. So, naturally, the Ramble Shawl was the perfect next big project for me! It combines my love for brioche knitting with my love for herringbone and really, what more could I ask for?
This is the first thing I’ve knitted with the intention of it being just for me. I wasn’t thinking about anyone while knitting this, except for me. I know that may sound selfish, but I like to think of it more as some much needed self care. It’s important to do things for you. Things that make you happy. Things that make you smile. Things that make you feel loved and special. I especially loved getting to pick out yarn that I loved and did not have to think about if someone else would love it or not. I loved it, and that’s all that mattered.
The Yarn:
I purchased my yarn for this project from a local yarn store (LYS) in San Diego called Apricot Yarn and Supply. This is my favorite LYS in San Diego, so it was an absolute pleasure getting to support local and purchase my yarns from them.
I purchased four skeins total of Malabrigo Rios in Worsted weight yarn. Two skeins of each colors: Sandbank and Zarzamora.
The pattern actually suggests using a DK weight yarn, but the LYS didn’t have any in that size. The Worsted weight ended up being perfect though!
The Pattern:
This pattern is called the Ramble Shawl and it was designed by Andrea Mowry of Drea Renee Knits!
The pattern was fairly easy to follow along with. I would suggest making a note right at the top of your pattern or whatever you use to follow along with your pattern which color is your Main Color (MC) and which color is your Contrasting Color (CC). Even though you think you will remember, there were several times when I needed to go all the way to the beginning on my shawl to figure out which was which (before I wrote it down).
The garter portion of the shawl is really easy and I think anyone with beginner level knitting skills would be able to follow along quite easily.
Before you move on to your brioche section, I would suggest added a lifeline just in case you have to rip back after starting the brioche section. This is just a suggestion, but if you’re anything like me, it’ll relieve some pressure just knowing that you have something solid to fall back on in case you need to rip. And, if you’re also like me, you may need to use a few times before you really start to get the hang of the Brioche Right Slant Decrease (BrRsl dec) and the Brioche Left Slant Decreases (BrLsl dec)! 😉
Speaking of the BrRsl and BrLsl: if you should make a mistake on your pattern at all while on a BrRsl or BrlSl dec row and need to unknit those stitches, you will be sad to discover no such videos exist on the internet. (Just hang on though!)
This happened to me. I made a mistake on half of my row in my knitting pattern and then realized I didn’t know how to unknit those stitches! I tried anyway (because you have to at least try!) and it got a little messy. With some advice from my knitting friend, I stopped before I messed it up any more than I already had and decided to seek expert knitting help.
I went to my LYS here in Albuquerque, The Yarn Store at Nob Hill, looking to get a little help from their expert knitter volunteer. Unfortunately, there was a family emergency and she was unable to come to the store that day. My options were to pull out the brioche work I had already done back to my lifeline (about 50 rows or so of knitting) or try to seek help elsewhere.
I started a reddit thread in the knitting subreddit asking if anyone knew how to unknit the BrRsl dec in brioche. I also reached out to a knitting YouTuber, The Unapologetic Knitter, in a comment on her video of how to knit the BrRsl dec stitch in brioche. She didn’t have a video to show it, but she wrote me step by step instructions on how to unknit that stitch.
Once I received these responses on Reddit and YouTube, I felt more confident in the fact that I could correctly unknit the half of the row that I made the mistake on. I decided to take my chances on getting “normal” knitting help at the LYS and see if someone working there would be able to help me out of my mess. Chris was working that day and was able to assist me to get me back on track! I was so relieved!
I went home and followed the instructions from The Unapologetic Knitter and unknit the rest of that row without a hitch!
I put together two short videos on how to unknit both the BrRsl dec and BrLsl dec should you decide to try out this shawl and need to unknit those stitches!
Overall, this pattern was such a fun project to knit up, despite having an issue on one of the rows! I love the way Andrea Mowry writes her patterns. She is easy to follow and designs the most beautiful knitwear and accessories!
The Reveal:
All reveal photos were taken by multi-talented J. S. Marler of Life Never Lost!
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