Jenn's Swan Shawl

In the fall, when Jaime and Amber went on a whirlwind retreat trip to New England, they came home with Swan’s Island Ikat Watercolor and Firefly yarns.  It’s an incredibly soft and light fingering weight Merino that is beautifully dyed. The skeins also boast a generous 527 yards each.

Pattern: Swan by Jennifer Renee
Materials: 1 skein Swans Island Ikat Fingering in Indigo/Natural

My single skein of the Watercolor in Indigo sat in my stash for only a couple of days before it began screaming at me. I always have too many projects started at once so I tried to ignore it, but everyday the yarn got louder and louder.  It told me that it wanted to be a simple scarf with an interesting border. Since, like most knitters, I am at the mercy of my stash, I decided to work up a swatch and a few samples for borders.

Within the first few rows, I noticed that the fabric created by the Indigo looked like water. What came out of an afternoon of trying different versions, was a simple crescent scarf knit in garter stitch with a border detail that uses eyelets and decreases to create peaks resembling waves. I couldn’t have been happier with the finished project.

Swan’s Island was a dream to work with. At first I was worried that the indigo dye would end up all over everything, as with most indigo dyed fibers.  While it did tint my hands blue, it washed off right away. When I blocked the scarf I was surprised that the water had barely any blue in it.  I’ve since worn it a number of times, one time even with a white shirt, and no more blue came off on my skin or clothes.

The shop carries a handful of Swan’s Island Merino Fingering Ikat yarn. The pattern would look beautiful in any of them.