I love autumn -- the crisp mornings and cooler days with their promise of change feel invigorating after a long hot summer. I find endless inspiration in the season’s incredible variety of colors and textures, so I wanted to design a shawl that would combine leaf shapes with interesting textures.

I decided to use the diamond lace motifs along the shawl’s edge because they resemble the shapes of birch leaves and I added a few simple cables with some purled stitches to create more texture.

Beithe got its name from the ancient Ogham alphabet where each letter is named after a tree; ‘beith’ means birch tree.

The amazing hand dyed colors of this Lisa Souza yarn are a perfect match for the colors of birch leaves in autumn. The yarn is a blend of wool and silk; the wool provides warmth and coziness to the shawl while the silk content enhances the overall drape.

Using just a single skein of this beautiful yarn, Beithe is knitted in one piece starting at the outside edge of the textured border. The shawl’s practical crescent shape is created by a set of short rows, which is worked in easy stockinette stitch and bound off with a 2-stitch I-cord.

8 Nov 2012 - additional chart info:
All the WS rows are purled. Pattern repeat is marked by purple borders.

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