This is my favorite type of shawl for late fall and early winter: large and brightly colored! As the daylight gets shorter, and we all seem to retreat into our dark winter gear – so much black, navy, charcoal and chocolate brown – we need something that ensures we’re easy to see at night, and brings a bit of cheer.

It’s also my favorite in another way: a not-at-all fussy stitch pattern. Ribbing might seem like an unusual choice for a shawl, but the fabric drapes beautifully when you wrap it around yourself, and you do get into the rhythm of the knitting, I promise – it’s quite meditative. I like these types of shawls for everyday, as sometimes lace can feel a bit too pretty, a bit too precious, a bit too delicate for wearing over my well-worn black puffer jacket when walking the dog. And as the name suggests, a little extra detail at the end of a very simple knit makes for just enough interest to make it feel special.

I’ve used a speckly variegated yarn in just about the brightest color that exists: go with what brings you joy. This design is very amenable to substitutions of yarn colors and thicknesses: just work until it’s the size you want. Two skeins of fingering-weight yarn make a generous wrap.

There’s a few interesting technical details: I use a 4-stitch stockinette stitch edging that rolls to look like i-cord, but there’s none of the issue with i-cord pulling vertically or causing the edge to be too tight. And I’ve started it with a stockinette stitch tab, which is a fun variant of the more common garter tab. If you’ve not done one before, don’t worry, there’s full instructions.

I have also introduced a variant on the useful-but-fiddly pfb increase.
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larger needle is only for bind off row