When I saw this shawl on instagram, I was drawn to the vibrant, fun colors. This shawl was originally designed for a yarn advent calendar as a mystery knit along. I think, at the time, the pattern wasn’t available unless you had purchased the yarn kit. But at the end of June, it popped up on my feed again and the pattern was on sale. I immediately purchased it and started to plan my colors. Keep reading for my experience knitting the Good Things shawl:
The Good Things Shawl by Susanne Sommer has direction for two color options — one that uses 12 colors in two different bases (like the advent calendar collaboration I had seen), or one that uses 3 colors in two different bases. I wanted to knit my shawl to look similar to the one I liked online (option 1). I loved that the shawl used fingering weight and fluffy lace weight yarns; it’s my favorite combination!
YARN
Color Options
I had just recently knit through most of my leftovers and also a lot of my yarn stash with my Starflanket blanket. So while I was feeling a lot more open to buying new yarn, I wasn’t trying to overwhelm myself with a ton of new skeins.
The advent calendar that was used in Option 1 contained 12 colors of fingering weight minis and 12 colors of fluffy lace weight minis. I love the idea of having an advent calendar like that and then perfectly using up all the yarn to make a beautiful shawl. But I don’t like buying anything that is a mystery and I’m never sure how to use minis, so advent calendars aren’t for me.
Building a Palette
I did want to create the look of 12 different colors though, so I searched my stash and found a few colors that would work. I had also recently placed an order at La Bien Aimee during their 10th birthday sale, and I knew some of those skeins would work. And finally, I went online to find the remaining colors I was looking for.
Here’s all of the yarn I put together:
I ended up buying the majority of my yarn from Wool and Company online. Their site is easy to navigate, the product pictures are uniform, have good color accuracy, and you can sort by color. They have so many brands and bases of yarn, great customer service, and fast/tracked shipping.
Colors were my main priority, and I was happy to find a beautiful palette of rainbow from Hedgehog Fibers in minis. This was perfect for me so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with so much leftover yarn, since the pattern called for minis.
For my Good Things Shawl, I am using:
- Cinder – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Pure – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Flamingo – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Kid You Not – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Egg Yoke – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Highlighter – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Envy – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Shamrock – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Skinny Dip – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Wisteria – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Electric – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Purple Reign – Hedgehog Fibres Sock Minis
- Ash – La Bien Aimee Kumo
- 914 Pearl – Fyberspates Cumulus
- As If – La Bien Aimee Kumo
- 1919 Blaze – Amano Uma
- Sunburst – La Bien Aimee Kumo
- Buzz – La Bien Aimee Little Kumo
- 943 Glow – Fyberspates Cumulus
- Lush – La Bien Aimee Kumo
- 722 Blue Daisy – Rowan Kidsilk Haze
- 915 Ethereal – Fyberspates Cumulus
- 705 Electric – Rowan Kidsilk Haze
- The Flying Knitter – La Bien Aimee Kumo
Winding the Yarn
I was excited with my rainbow of yarn and ready to get started knitting, but I needed to wind everything up. I hand-wound the fingering mini skeins into center-pull balls. They look so cute in my crochet basket. I’m slowly made progress from the last time I shared a pic.
Some of my yarn was in balls already and didn’t need winding. But for my larger skeins, I used my swift and ball winder to make the center-pull balls. Having the appropriate tools makes things a lot easier and all my cakes look super uniform.
Color Assignments
With my yarn wound up, I was all ready to go. I had read through the pattern and felt like I had a good understanding. I assigned my colors in a rainbow order, but with a neutral break in the middle:
GOOD THINGS SHAWL
The Good Things Shawl is knit in alternating brioche and garter wedges which are then joined together with mirrored garter and brioche wedges knit in between. The shawl uses two needle sizes to get gauge — US 4 needles for the fingering weight yarn, and US 2.5 for the lace weight yarn.
The pattern is very clear with directions, it provides stitch counts, and bolds the increases/decreases. There are photo tutorials showing where to pick up stitches. For me to better understand, and for the purpose of this blog post, I am calling the “segments” in the pattern “wedges”.
Main Wedges
The main wedges (A, B, C, D) begin with brioche using the US 4 needles. I used my 22″ cable to knit and to hold each wedge as I knit the next. This is the third time I’ve knit a Susanne Sommer pattern, and I’m always impressed with the brioche techniques.
I placed a stitch marker on each of the Section 1 pieces to mark the RS as I got started. The pattern then alternates between garter in the fluffy lace weight yarn, and brioche in fingering weight yarn.
As I knit the garter stitch sections, I transferred the working section onto the smaller US 2.5 needles. I had US 2.5 needles in my Chiaogoo mini set and I used the 3″ tips on a 22″ cable.
Mistaken Needles
Things were going well and I was excited to see the wedges start to grow, until I realized I was using the wrong needle tips. :/ I mistakenly selected my 2.5mm needles instead of the US 2.5. I ripped back and reknit the pink garter sections with the correct needles. It was a lot easier to knit with the larger needle. So even though I was sad to have to reknit everything, I’m glad I caught it early in the project.
Repeats
Repeating each section of the garter or brioche four times did start to feel a little tedious. But I looked forward to the color changes, and as the rows grew, I could settle in for a bit. The pattern was clear and easy to memorize. So once I was in the groove, I could relax a bit and enjoy knitting while watching a show in the evenings.
With the mohair colors, I held the yearn double to get a matching weight to the other fluffy suri sections.
Completed Wedges
I was happy with the completed main wedges. Once I finished the final section, I left the live stitches on the 22″ cable and I used stoppers to secure the cable. I took a little time to weave in some of the ends, but I left the tails long so that I could make adjustments after blocking.
Secondary Wedges
Once the four main wedges are complete, you join them together by knitting in the secondary wedges in between. The secondary wedges are knit modularly, meaning you are joining the stitches as you go versus seaming them together after knitting.
There are three middle wedges that join the main wedges on each end, and there is one corner wedge that joins the main wedge only on one side.
Getting Started
I read through the pattern and attempted to start the first section of the corner wedge, but I was having a hard time. The pattern has a photo tutorial and explains to insert the needle “front to back” when joining the selvedge stitch. The pattern explains that WS is facing which means that you insert the needle from the WS toward the RS. I kept thinking that the “front” meant RS and “back” meant WS so I was having an issue getting started. But I found this video tutorial and I realized my error:
I’ve knit some modular designs before, so once I got past my initial misunderstanding I was very comfortable with knitting.
Corner Wedge
I decided to continue to knit all the sections of the corner wedge first. The corner wedge is slightly different than the middle wedges, so it was easier to just focus on the corner for me.
I used stitch markers, as suggested in the pattern, to help identify which selvedge stitches to pick up. Knitting the corner wedge felt so fast compared to repeating each section four times with the main wedges. I really enjoyed working through each color and seeing such quick progress.
The secondary wedges are knit in opposite yarns and textures to the main wedges. So I enjoyed the change and getting to use my other yarns. Some of my secondary colors were a better match than others, so I sort of feel like they draw in the eye in the same way as some of those 3d optical illusion shapes.
I wasn’t loving the look of some of the joins where the brioche decreases are. It didn’t look very clean or straight to me, but I was hoping it would look better after blocking.
Middle Wedges
First Middle Wedge
Starting the middle wedges was a lot harder for me. I started and ripped back at least 5 times. It was challenging to get in a good grove for working between the two main wedges. With the cast on so small, I was worried that the new section was getting twisted.
Once I got past the first 4-5 repeats, the pattern was well established and I was able to knit through more easily. This part wasn’t very fun for me. Especially as I got near the end and saw that the number of pick up stitches was uneven on either side. Not only that, but my stitch count was short. So I had clearly made a mistake somewhere. Usually I’d have no problem ripping back, but since I struggled so hard at the beginning, I just did the best I could to get back on track. So I doubled up a pick up on one end, and picked up the same selvedge stitch on the other end. And to get my stitch count back on track, I just needed to skip the final decrease.
After I’d finished the first section, I needed to put this project on hold. I set it aside for a week so I could forget my frustration. When I finally came back, I decided to continue to the brioche on this particular middle wedge instead of starting the next middle wedge from the beginning. I used a rubber band to secure the remaining two main wedges that weren’t in use while I knit.
Continuing the First Middle Wedge
Working on the same wedge was easy and fun. I was happy to move onto the next section and having the longer rows. So the issue I was having was just getting the middle wedge started. I was kind of dreading having to work the next two middle wedges, but at the time I was enjoying the project again.
My recommendation for working the middle wedges is to do a quick stitch count and selvedge edge check somewhere in the middle of each section. That way you have time to make adjustments (or rip back) as needed before you get too near the end of the section.
Once I finished the first middle wedge, I bound off the stitches and bound of the stitches from the connected main wedge. The shawl was coming along and I liked how it was going. But I was still not looking forward to starting the next middle wedge. I took another short break before continuing.
Next Middle Wedge
When I started the next middle wedge, things went a lot more smoothly. I did still have to rip back a couple of times, but it was easier to get going. I decided to just continue this middle wedge entirely instead of trying to work the remaining middle wedges simultaneously. It just felt easier and it made the knitting seem faster because of the quick color changes.
Final Middle Wedge
For the final middle wedge, I didn’t need to rip anything back! All that practice from the previous middle wedges helped me get set up easily. This final wedge was really quick to knit too. I am definitely faster at knitting the brioche with the fingering yarn vs the silky fluffy yarns on the smaller needles.
The shawl looked beautiful and I was really happy to have finished all the wedges. I bound off all the live stitches and wove in a few ends.
Center Connection
To give the shawl a polished edge, the final part of this shawl is a tiny little crescent knit over the top edge sections. So for my shawl, I pulled out my A1 pure yarn and picked up the stitches across the tips of all the edge segments. This section was super quick, and I was ready to block my shawl!
Blocking
I intended to use a color catcher while soaking my shawl, but in my excitement, I didn’t. I soaked my shawl in cool water with some soap. While I was squeezing out the water, I noticed that some of the pink had transferred to the white. 🙁
Once I squeezed out the water, I laid it out on a beach towel and rolled it up to get the rest of the water out. Next I transferred the shawl to my blocking mats. I used my rainbow blockers to pin the top edge and the spine down the middle. Then I used t-pins to exaggerate the shawl’s points. I tried to pay close attention to the seams between wedges and making them look more straight.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I really love how the Good Things Shawl looks and I am glad that I made it. It wasn’t always the most fun to knit, but I think I just needed some more practice because by the final wedge, I had no issues. The pattern was well-written and I was happy to see the tutorial video which helped me get going on a tricky part.
I love the texture of the shawl and how the fingering + fluffy yarns create a beautiful and soft fabric. This shawl feels so nice. I am happy with my color choices and the yarns I used.
This shawl is really beautiful and I love how it turned out. Check out my Ravelry to see my other projects or what I’m working on next!
