Drachenzauber is online!

drachenzauber

Shawl or stole?

Both are possible, with nearly the same pattern!

It all began with this beautiful color gradient yarn – “Drachenzauber”, hand dyed by Drachenwolle, a lace yarn made of 100% Merino with 500 m/ 100 g and a wonderful shine. Hand dyed as a color gradient with a very new technique that was invented by Drachenwolle – the yarn is NOT knitted up before it is dyed in color gradients, and it has not to be frogged before being knitted. It is hand dyed un-knitted in finest nuances.

I wanted to design something very special with this yarn – and I hope I have succeeded!

Size:

Stole: approx. 230 x 40 cm Shawl: approx. 230 cm wide, the tip is 80 cm long

Drachenzauber is designed with elements of Swing-Knitting™ – short rows that build up a harmonic system.

This pattern instruction wants to reach two groups of knitters: those who already have Swing-Knitting™ knowledge, and those who prefer to knit by a row by row explanation. Both types of instructions are included in this one PDF – you need not print everything but only those pages that you need!

Part A (pages 6 – 15) gives general information about the stole / the shawl and about the techniques that I use – please read it before beginning to knit!

Part B (pages 16 – 35) is for those who already know and master the Swing-Knitting™ technique – and if you don’t understand something, you can easily look up at the row by row explanation!

Part B.4. Gives a short summary for the complete shawl / stole for advanced Swing-Knitters.

Part C (pages 36 – 69) explains the pattern row by row without further explanations.

Part D (pages 70 – 75) explains the sequence of knitting the several parts and how to piece them together – for both groups of knitters.

Part E (pages 76 – 91) is the technical appendix. There I explain knitting techniques that not every knitter might know, step by step as photo tutorials.

The amount of material that you need refers to the original yarns that I used. If you knit with a bigger yarn (i.e. sock yarn), your stole / shawl will become larger and you will need more yarn. If you knit with a more light-weight yarn (i.e. lace yarn with 600m/ 100g), your stole / shawl will become smaller and you will need less yarn.

Yarn for stanzas:

Stole: 2 x 100 g Drachenwolle Drachenzauber gradient yarn (100% merino, 500m / 100 g)

Shawl: 3 x 100 g Drachenwolle Drachenzauber gradient yarn (100% merino, 500m / 100 g)

The yarn for stanzas can be every yarn with a VERY LONG color flow – you’ll need 2 or 3 equal balls or skeins.

Hand dyed yarns with short color segments are not suited – the eye won’t be able to catch the shapes of the different segments, the fabric will look chaotic.

If you want to knit the shawl with 2 balls of yarns for stanzas only, you may knit the sideward trapezes one-colored with the yarn for pauses.

Yarn for pauses:

Stole: 2 x 100 g Drachenwolle Lace 500 yarn (100% merino, 500m / 100 g)

Shawl: 2 x 100 g Drachenwolle Lace 500 yarn (100% merino, 500 m / 100 g)

The yarn for pauses should be a solid or semi-solid – if you choose a hand dyed yarn with different color segments and strong contrasts within the skein, you won’t see the graphical structure of the pattern any longer. The eye won’t be able to recognize the shapes.

Yarns used in meters:

Stole: Yarn for stanzas – approx. 180 g = 900 m = 2 x 450 m

yarn for pauses– approx. 120 g = 600 m

Shawl: With trapezes in Swing-Knitting pattern:

Yarn for stanzas – approx. 220 g = 2 x 350 m and 1 x 400 m

yarn for pauses– approx. 140 g = 700 m

With trapezes knitted solid with yarn for pauses:

Yarn for stanzas– approx. 160 g = 800 m = 2 x 400 m

yarn for pauses– approx. 200 g = 1000 m

1 circular knitting needle 3.0 mm, at least 80 cm long = working needle

Maybe a set of double points in matching size for the garter tab at the beginning of the triangles

Several additional needles in matching size or smaller, as holders for the single parts: 6/8 x 80 cm long, 3/4 x at least 120 cm long – you can also use a piece of smooth yarn as a holder for the live stitches that are not in use and put these stitches onto circulars later again!

blunt tapestry needle for the kitchener stitch

1 closed stitch marker for the middle of the triangle

For Swing-Knitters™: 5 light safety pins (or lockable stitch markers), 5 dark safety pins (or lockable stitch markers)

Gauge:

Lace 500 with needles 3.0 mm: 24 stitches and 27 double rows knitted in garter stitch = 10 x 10 cm (before washing and blocking)

Lace 500 with needles 3.0 mm: 25 stitches and 20 double rows knitted in garter stitch = 10 x 10 cm (after washing and blocking)

Stole or shawl?

For both pieces the triangular elements are identical – for the stole you’ll knit 3 such elements, for the shawl 4. How to use the color gradients, I’ll explain in “Procedure”. I’ll also explain in detail how to compose the stole / shawl of the single elements.

The “inbetween segments” (trapeze shaped segments) of the stole are also worked in Swing-Knitting™.

You have 2 possibilities to knit the shawl: If you want to make the trapezes in Swing-Knitting patterning, you’ll need 3 x 100 g Drachenwolle color gradient. If you want to knit the trapezes in plain garter stitch with the yarn for pauses, you’ll need 2 x 100 g color gradient.

Thank you to my wonderful test knitters Angelika Woolangel und Angelika Rübezahli – they spent a lot of time helping me to find counting mistakes and ambiguous explanations – hopefully there will be no more mistakes in the pattern.

And THANK YOU to my lovely models Angelika and Petra!

Have a lot of fun knitting Drachenzauber!