Southwold Summer Wrap

Two new patterns in one week! What's going on? You wait ages for one new pattern and then two come along! I'm very happy to share my first shawl pattern with you. It's called the Southwold Summer Wrap and it's an asymmetric triangular shawl. It came about when I first saw Stylecraft's Natural Bamboo and Cotton yarn range. I fell in love with both the feel of the yarn and the colour range and knew that I wanted to knit something soft and with a wonderful drape to wrap around my neck on cooler summer days.

The beach is my happy place; whether it's a beach in Kos, in Cornwall, or much closer to home in East Anglia, it always makes me feel relaxed. Breathing in the fresh air and hearing the waves on the shore is so good for the soul. So I decided to choose three sea colours for my version - Ecru, Seafoam and Surf. One of my favourite things to do when I'm at the beach (apart from eating chips and/or ice cream) is to look for pieces of sea glass and I've gathered together rather a lovely bowl of treasures over the years. It followed that I wanted to add some glass beads to the shawl somewhere! 

I'm thrilled with how it turned out - it's lovely and long and so soft too, just perfect for wrapping around yourself when it gets a bit cooler in the evenings.

The beads are just what I imagined in my head. I got them from the African Fabric shop here. Of course, you can add any kind of beads you like, or you can choose not to add any at all! It's up to you. You don't have to use sea colours either. My test knitter made hers using the Stylecraft Naturals Organic Cotton yarn and chose bright colours reminiscent of the colourful beach huts that you often find on the promenades of seaside towns. She chose Citron, Leaf and Papaya for hers and I think it looks fabulous!

The Southwold Summer Wrap has been named after one of my favourite beaches in the East of England. Mr JK and I used to go down to Suffolk quite frequently, visiting Aldeburgh and Southwold. The wrap is made up of two different patterns - garter stitch rows and lace eyelet rows with some garter stitch stripes in between. It's a very straightforward pattern to knit and it's going to be the July project in the Stylecraft Makealong group on Facebook. It would be lovely if you were able to come and join in the fun! You can follow the colours used in the pattern or pick your own. Here are a few different colour combinations from the Naturals Bamboo and Cotton range. To see all the colours in the range, look here.

Here are a few possible colour combinations from the Naturals Organic Cotton range. To see all the colours, click here.

The pattern is available from my Ravelry pattern store here. If you are unable to access Ravelry but would like to buy a copy of the pattern, please email me - josiekitten123 at gmail.com and I will do my best to help you out. The pattern costs £4 and there's a special discount code which will give you 25% off throughout July. The code is 'summerwrap'. I will be donating all proceeds from pattern sales to my fundraising over on Fibre4Fibres, raising money for Myositis UK. The Makealong doesn't start until July 8th, so you've got time to get yourself organised with pattern and yarn. I'll be there, knitting another, more colourful version this time and it would be so nice to have your company too. xxx