I deliberately used much larger needles than recommended for tension size to make this as open-knitted pattern as possible.

The yarn is lovely, and because I am knitting as if it was a scarf the bands are vertical as opposed to horizontal, which creates an unusual almost tie-dyed effect on the shrug.

Almost finished: I altered the cuffs so knitted them on straight needles as opposed to knitting in the round, and the cuffs have a hidden seem. I need to take the seams a little further up the arms as the shrug has a tendency to slide completely off my shoulders otherwise. Will update with a photo soon.

This pattern can be easily adapted to make an easy to make, but complex-looking lightweight scarf, if you just omit the cuffs and knit to the desired length of scarf: it works really well with Wendy 4ply “Happy” bamboo blend (though you might lose goth points for that yarn name!!!!)

9th Sept 2010

Having left this on hold for almost a year I have finally finished the darn thing, and am quite happy with it. Apologies for the poor quality pics but it is 5.40am and I just wanted to finish the project.