Knitting Melanie Berg’s Drachenfels Shawl

With  4,613 projects in three years, Melanie Berg’s Drachenfels shawl is a knitter’s favorite. Using three colors and coming in at under 1,000 yards for the entire project, this cushy garter and slipped stitch shawl blends graphic interest with practical comfort, without sacrificing good design to maintain the interest of the knitter.

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My friend Marseille knit her own in vibrant violet and cool aqua with a quiet neutral as the third hue, then she let me photograph it and write about it. Her Drachenfels was a kit from Craftsy, with their proprietary Cloudborn Sport yarn.

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Marseille told me this is a “great pattern because it’s not a difficult knit. It’s a good travel project, aside from the bulk and it’s *very* wearable.  Colorblocked patterns like this are wearable and memorable, and not difficult to knit.  More complex stitch patterns often don’t always ‘show off’ as well.”

Though the original pattern was written for fingering weight yarn, Marseille’s kit had [lightweight] sport weight yarns. This proves how the pattern would work in a variety of weights. Of course, changing yarn weight (and needle size) can have an impact on how the pattern is worked up. And we’ve all played yarn chicken when you face running out of yarn before you expect. Marseille explained, “since you start at the point and work out, you could stop whenever you wanted to.”

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Isn’t everything more fun with stripes? It also adds a splash of visual interest to any outfit. We paired it with a vintage Ralph Lauren blazer to see if it could work with another pattern and, sure enough, it shined!

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Melanie Berg has a way with colorwork and the stripes and dots bring a personality all its own to the Drachenfels shawl. The combination of garter and slipped stitch creates a unique look and feel.

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One of the most important elements of a finished lace shawl is blocking, but the beauty of this project was how easy it was to block. A low-maintenance shawl is so wonderful. Considering how often we as knitters are told our hand knit shawl is beautiful only to reply, “Oh, thanks, but it really needs to be relocked.”, it is nice to have something easy to reblock. A quick rinse and spin then spread out on the floor without pins or anything created its ideal shape. Who doesn’t love easy?!

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Project Summary:

Which colors would you knit your Drachenfels?

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