DESCRIPTION:
The Cyanotype Shawl is part of the evolution of my Tintype Collection, a group of designs that continues my work in the field of short-row pattern motifs. This body of work highlights the way color changing and gradient yarns move throughout a design. This design expands upon my knitting vocabulary, incorporating the use of the principles of mosaic knitting and slipped stitches to create a grid-like pattern without the use of stranding.

INSPIRATION:
This design was inspired by the work of Armondo Thomas “Mondo” Guerra, an American fashion designer who finished as runner-up on Season 8 of Project Runway. The specific design that influenced this pattern is a bold, graphic, black-and-white, op-art printed, sleeveless blouse that was featured in Episode 10 of the season. The complete work is bold and striking in both its conceptual statement and visual presence.

Cyanotype: a slow-reacting, photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300 nm to 400nm known as UVA radiation. It produces a monochrome, blue colored print on a range of supports, often used for art, and for reprography in the form of blueprints. The process usually uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate or ferric ammonium oxalate, and potassium ferricyanide, and only water to develop and fix. The cyanotype was discovered, and named, by Sir John Herschel who in 1842 published his investigation of light on iron compounds, expecting that photochemical reactions would reveal, in form visible to the human eye, the infrared extreme of the electromagnetic spectrum detected by his father Willian Herschel and the ultra-violet or ‘actinic’ rays that had been discovered in 1801 by Johann Ritter. The blue hue naturally associates symbolically with sea or sky.

TECHNIQUES:
Techniques used in this design are garter and stockinette stitch involving both knitting and purling as well as the double stitch technique of forming short-row shapes. A continuous i-cord edge frames the entire work and slipped stitches create irregularly spaced linear columns along the vertical length of the scarf.

DIAGRAMS:
This pattern comes with instruction along with a detailed vector diagram for both color placement and knitting order.

SIZE:
Width: 71 cm (28”)
Length: 259 cm (102”)

YARN + YARDAGE:
MC: FREIA FINE HANDPAINT YARNS
Fiber Content: 100% Mulesing-Free Merino
Weight: Single Ply Fingering; 100g /3.53oz - 393m/430yds
Color Shown: Denim
Total Yardage: 1277m/1397yds
1 yarn bomb, 1 shawl ball, and 1 minikin

CC: POKAINU YARNS
Fiber Content: 100% Shetland Wool
Weight: 2-Ply Sport; 100g /4oz - 361m/395yds
Color Shown: Relic
Yardage: 1400m/1530yds 4 skeins