The La Baule Shawl is one of seven patterns in issue five of John Arbon Textiles’ in house magazine, The Annual, published in September 2025.

There are kits available for this pattern.

This shawl is inspired by La Baule, a seaside resort on the Atlantic coast in northwest France that owes its fame to its beach, which – stretching for 9km – is one of the longest in Europe. This shawl uses the bright colours and stripe patterns of parasols and beach huts, along with a moss stitch section evoking the texture of sand. It’s also akin to a sail flapping happily in the coastal breeze!

This drapey shawl works perfectly in the bright and colourful palette of our Knit by Numbers DK, as well as a more muted palette from our Appledore DK range. The perfect accessory to wrap up in during a cool sunset beach walk.

Yarn
DK
MC: 200g
CC1: 80g / CC2: 90g / CC3: 80g

Sizes
One Size

Finished Measurements
a - Wingspan: 172cm / 68’’
b - Centre depth: 79cm / 31’’

Gauge
20 sts x 38 rows = 10cm / 4” square over striped garter stitch, after blocking.

Needles
3.5mm (UK 9 / US 4) circular knitting needle, 100cm / 40” long
3.5mm (UK 9 / US 4) circular knitting needle, 80cm / 32” long for provisional cast-on (Triangle C)
3.5mm (US E/4) crochet hook

Always use a needle size that results in the correct gauge after blocking.

Samples shown in
Knit by Numbers (DK; 233m per 100g)
Sample shown in KBN115 (MC), KBN100 (CC1), KBN13 (CC2), KBN38 (CC3)
Appledore (DK; 250m per 100g)
Sample shown in Hoary Morning (MC), Dufflin (CC1), Slack Ma Girdle (CC2), Billy Down Pippin (CC3)

Notes
The shawl is knitted modularly from tip to tip in three sections (see Fig. 1 on p. 101), and includes an i-cord along the outer edges. The stitches at the edges of some rows are worked as an i-cord. Keep your tension loose for these stitches to keep the edge stretchy. If you find the edges are too tight, work the i-cord twice every few rows by replacing the “k3/p3” at the beginning of a row by “k3/p3, slip 3 sts back to left-hand needle, k3/p3”.

When working stripes, break each CC after each block of stripes, but carry MC up inside the i-cord edge. Twist the carried yarn with the working yarn at the beg of the row; we found that twisting both before and after the i-cord edge helped to stop it peeping out into the stripes.

Slip all stitches purlwise unless indicated otherwise.