Fissure is worked from end to end, the light fabric and bias-knit sections providing movement and drape. Uneven zigzags play with the slowly evolving stripes, while contrasting short rows give a bit of curve to the middle of the shawl. To make this shawl, you will need to know how to knit, purl, yarn over, ssk, and k2tog. Pattern instructions are written only (no charts), and include directions for working German short rows.

Size: 18 in/45.5cm wide at ends, 19.5 in/49.5cm wide at centre; 81 in/205.5cm along the top, 86 in/218.5cm along the bottom. Josephine, the model here, is 5 ft 7 in/170cm tall.

Yarn:

• Jill Draper Makes Stuff Rifton 600 (100% wool; 600 yds/549m per 6.5 oz/184g); 2 cakes. Shown in 1 cake Spring, 1 cake Winter

• Jill Draper Makes Stuff Rifton Mono (100% wool; 350 yds/320m per 4 oz/113g); Malachite: 1 skein

Notions:

• 4 stitch markers (2 for increase points, 2 for decrease points); yarn needle

About the yarn:

Rifton is a loosely spun yarn made from fine wool (approximately 21.5 microns, about the same diameter as most Merino wool). Soft and spongy, Rifton looks like a singles yarn, but if you untwist it, you’ll see 2 barely spun plies, rather like the structure of Icelandic Lopi. Though it looks (and can be knit) like a fingering to sport weight, Rifton’s structure means that it will work well on a wide range of needles: the US9/5.5mm needles used here give a soft, drapey, still-cohesive fabric. Rifton 600 is spun in gradually shifting stripes of brights and natural fleece colours, while Rifton Mono is made from one shade of the Rifton 600 stripes. As with all Jill Draper Makes Stuff yarns, Rifton is US made from sheep to skein.

Rifton is a unique yarn, so if substituting yarn for this project, you will likely need a different yardage and will end up with a different fabric. The design is flexible enough to work with different yarns, though: look for a yarn that gives you a fabric you like at the pattern gauge, regardless of yarn weight. If you’d like to have the same sort of
light, airy, cohesive fabric, look for yarns that are woolen-spun, rather than dense, worsted-spun yarns.